e> 

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cop.S 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


A CHARACTER  SKETCH 

"\ 


FRANK  STRONG,  A.M.,  Ph.D. 

Lecturer  in  History  in  Yale  University 


WITH  ANECDOTES,  CHARACTERISTICS  AND 
CHRONOLOGY 


DANSVILLE,  N.  Y. 

Instructor  Publishing  Co. 


Copyright  1898, 

By  The  University  Association. 


;£> 

T 8.3 1 st  ^ 

C 

l 


EVERY  visitor  to  Boston  who  has  the  historical  spirit, 
walks  up  Milk  Street,  near  the  Old  South  Church, 
to  view  the  tablet  which  marks  the  birthplace  of  Benja- 
min Franklin.  The  day  which  saw  Benjamin  ushered 
into  this  vale  of  tears  was,  according  to  old  style,  Janu- 
ary 6th,  new  style  January  17th,  1706. 

Benjamin’s  father,  Josiah  Franklin,  was  blessed  with 
more  than  his  share  of  pledges  to  fortune,  Benjamin  hav- 
ing no  fewer  than  sixteen  brothers  and  sisters,  some  of 
them  being  of  the  half  blood.  Josiah  came  of  good 
English  stock  of  Northamptonshire,  where  the  Frank- 
lins owned  a small  farm  and  a smithy  which  regularly 
descended  to  the  eldest  son,  while  the  youngest  son 
served  as  apprentice. 

Benjamin  was  the  youngest  son  of  the  youngest  son 
for  many  generations  back.  Not  far  away  lived  the  an- 
cestors of  another  great  American  who  was  associated 
with  Franklin  in  the  most  momentous  struggle  that  has 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  American  continent— George 
Washington.  But  there  was  a great  difference  in  the 

station  of  the  two  families;  the  Washingtons  were  of 

5 


703282 


6 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


gentle  blood,  while  the  Franklins  were  brawny  smiths 
or  farmers.  Even  then  the  Franklins  had  the  sturdy 
independence  of  which  men  are  made.  They  turned 
early  to  the  Protestant  faith,  or  perhaps  were  descended 
from  the  French  Protestants,  and  in  Bloody  Mary’s  time 
they  persisted  in  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  concealing  it 
by  fastening  the  book  under  the  top  of  a joint  stool. 
Thus  while  one  of  the  children  watched,  the  father  of 
the  household  turned  over  the  stool  and  read  the  precious 
words  which  peril  only  sanctified. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  II,  Josiah  Franklin  and  Benja- 
min, his  favorite  brother,  broke  with  the  rest  of  the  fam- 
ily by  abandoning  the  Church  of  England  and  espous- 
ing the  cause  of  the  Dissenters.  On  this  account  Josiah 
left  England  about  the  year  1685  and  removed  to  Boston. 

Benjamin  also  came  of  good  stock  on  his  mother’s 
side.  Her  name  was  Abiah  Folger,  daughter  of  Peter 
Folger  who  settled  in  Watertown  in  1635.  He  was 
noted  for  his  missionary  labors  among  the  Indians,  and 
showed  his  liberal  spirit  and  opposition  to  persecution  by 
becoming  a Baptist  minister. 

Franklin’s  biographers  seem  agreed  that  he  derived 
from  his  mother  his  physical  traits,  while  it  seems  cer- 
tain that  he  derived  from  his  maternal  grandfather  his 
hatred  of  bigotry  and  helpful  nature.  The  most  distin- 
guishing quality  of  mind  that  Benjamin  possessed — 
clear,  sound  common  sense  - he  got  from  his  father, 
whom  he  speaks  of  as  having  this  quality  in  a marked 
degree.  Josiah  was  handsome,  cheerful  and  accom- 
plished. He  was  musical  and  sang  to  his  family  of  an 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


7 


evening,  accompanying  himself  on  his  violin.  Benja- 
min held  these  evenings  as  happy  spots  in  his  mem- 
ory, and  he  often  referred  to  them  when  an  old 
man.  The  home  life,  therefore,  was  affectionate  and  in- 
spiring. 

Benjamin  had  been  named  after  Josiah’s  favorite 
brother,  who  still  remained  in  England.  The  elder  was 
of  a literary  turn,  and  this  fact  probably  had  a very 
important  bearing  on  his  nephew,  for  the  uncle  after- 
ward lived  in  the  same  house  for  years.  He  left  two 
quarto  volumes  of  his  poetry,  some  of  it  written  for  his 
nephew  whom  he  very  early  (at  seven  years)  encouraged 
to  court  the  muses.  In  1713  he  sent  the  boy  lines  as 
follows: 

“ ’Tis  time  for  me  to  throw  aside  my  pen, 

When  hanging  sleeves  read,  write  and  rhyme  like  men. 

This  forward  spring  foretells  a plenteous  crop; 

For  if  the  bud  bear  grain,  what  will  the  top?” 

Sparks  says:  “These  lines  are  more  prophetic,  per- 
haps, than  the  writer  imagined.” 

Benjamin’s  father  intended  him  for  a preacher,  and  he 
was  sent  to  the  Boston  Grammar  School.  But  the 
boy  hankered  after  the  life  of  a sailor.  Josiah  had  al- 
ready lost  one  son  by  his  running  away  to  sea,  and,  fearful 
of  losing  another,  as  a sort  of  compromise  Benjamin  was 
set  at  “dipping  wicks  and  pouring  grease,4”  for  his  father 
was  a tallow-chandler  and  soap-boiler.  This  was  when 
the  boy  had  arrived  at  the  mature  age  of  ten  years. 

He  was  not  very  industrious,  on  account  of  which  his 
father  quoted  to  him  Solomon’s  proverb  about  the  dili- 


8 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


gent  man  standing  before  Kings.  He  spent  a good  deal 
of  time  in  swimming  and  invented  swimming  devices, 
and  again,  by  flying  a kite  made  it  draw  him  across  the 
pond  of  water  on  his  back. 

He  remained  with  his  father  for  three  years,  with 
some  diversion  at  intervals  by  reading  the  few  books 
which  he  procured  by  much  ingenuity  and  self-sacrifice. 
He  loved  best  Bunyan’s  immortal  Allegory.  He  pur- 
chased Burton’s  Historical  Collections  and  Cotton  Math- 
er’s “Essays  to  do  Good,”  and  no  doubt  the  “Boston 
Newsletter,”  America’s  only  newspaper,  then  about  as 
large  as  a sheet  of  modern  foolscap. 

This  tendency  seemed  to  give  the  father  a dim  notion 
that  the  boy  was  worthy  of  something  better  than  the 
greasy  trade  in  which  he  w^as  employed.  Therefore  lie 
was  apprenticed  when  thirteen  years  old  to  his  older 
brother  James,  who  was  a printer.  This  was  not  done, 
however,  until  the  boy  had  been  taken  to  the  shops  oi 
joiners,  bricklayers,  turners,  etc.,  that  he  might  get  an 
idea  of  what  trade  he  would  like  best,  so  anxious  was 
the  father  to  keep  the  boy  from  the  sea. 

Benjamin  soon  learned  the  printing  trade  and  became 
a valuable  hand.  Not  only  that,  but  he  got  access  to 
better  books  and  often  sat  up  most  of  the  night  to  read, 
when  he  had  borrowed  a book  or  surreptitiously  taken  it 
for  a night’s  reading. 

He  tried  his  hand  at  poetry,  for  it  was  the  time  of 
street  ballads  on  the  exploits  of  pirates,  on  shipwreck? 
and  murders.  This  production  was  printed  by  his  broth 
er  and  sold.  But  he  was  saved  from  becoming  a poet 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


9 


to  which  his  vanity  now  led  him,  by  his  father,  who 
told  him  that  verse  makers  were  generally  beggars. 

He  then  turned  to  putting  down  his  thoughts  in  prose, 
and  by  the  aid  of  his  father  and  an  odd  volume  of  the 
“Spectator,”  succeeded  in  correcting  his  faults  of  com- 
position. Lacking  a vocabulary,  he  took  parts  of  the 
“Spectator”  and  making  a mere  sketch  of  them,  after- 
ward tried  to  put  them  into  good  English.  By  compar- 
ing these  efforts  with  the  original,  he  made  rapid  prog- 
ress. 

He  early  avoided  attendance  on  public  worship  and 
while  a mere  boy,  from  reading  Collins,  Shaftesbury  and 
Bolingbroke,  became  very  unorthodox.  Three  years  af- 
ter he  was  apprenticed  he  obtained  a book  on  vegetable 
diet,  and,  with  some  liking  for  the  perverse,  became  a 
vegetarian.  In  this  way  he  saved  part  of  the  expense  of 
his  board,  and  got  a little  money  for  books. 

From  reading  Xenophon’s  “Memorable  Things  of 
Socrates,”  he  took  up  the  Socratic  method  of  disputa- 
tion which  helped  to  crystalize  his  style;  and  at  the 
same  time  he  learned  from  Socrates  that  courteous  man- 
ner which  is  so  valuable  to  a disputant. 

James  Franklin  published  the  “New  England  Cour- 
ant,”  one  of  the  earliest  newspapers  in  America,  and 
Benjamin,  unbeknown  to  his  brother,  wrote  occasional 
pieces  for  it  which  he  stuck  under  the  door  of  the  shop. 
These  were  accepted  and  praised  without  their  author 
being  suspected,  and  this  led  Benjamin  to  believe  in  his 
own  power  to  influence  men  by  his  pen.  But  he  re- 
ceived from  his  brother  more  blows  than  was  altogether 


10 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


agreeable,  and  he  therefore  sought  an  occasion  of  escap- 
ing his  apprenticeship.  He  found  it  when  his  brother 
was  arrested  for  some  political  article  in  his  paper  which 
was  displeasing  to  the  Assembly,  and  forbidden  to  longer 
publish  the  “Courant.” 

As  a subterfuge  the  paper  was  published  in  the  name 
of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  the  first  indentures  of  ap- 
prenticeship cancelled  and  new  ones  secretly  given. 
Under  the  new  management  the  paper  flourished  as  nev- 
er before.  Taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity,  and 
under  strong  feeling  because  of  his  brother’s  ill  treat- 
ment, he  left,  but  was  prevented  by  James  from  getting 
work  at  his  trade  in  Boston. 

He  secretly  took  ship  for  New  York,  where  he  ar- 
rived in  October,  1723.  He  was  then  seventeen  years 
old,  with  a tolerably  good  opinion  of  himself,  and  with 
a reputation  in  Boston  of.  being  a dangerous  youth,  both 
politically  and  religiously. 

On  his  way  to  New  York  the  ship  stopped  off  Block 
Island  to  fish  for  cod,  and  Benjamin  was  tempted  by  the 
sweet  savor  of  fried  cod  to  renounce  his  vegetarian  prin- 
ciples. 

Finding  no  work  in  New  York  he  started  for  Phila- 
delphia, and  after  a voyage  of  thirty  hours  reached 
Perth  Amboy  wet,  hungry,  and  feverish.  He  walked 
from  Perth  Amboy  across  New  Jersey  to  Burlington, 
cutting  such  a miserable  figure  as  to  be  suspected  of  be- 
ing a runaway  servant. 

From  Burlington  he  succeeded  in  getting  a boat  for 
Philadelphia.  He  reached  the  city  on  a Sunday  tired 


II 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

and  very  hungry,  with  only  a Dutch  dollar  and  a shil- 
ling in  copper  in  his  pocket.  The  shilling  he  gave  for 
his  passage  on  the  boat.  He  was  worn  with  fatigue  and 
loss  of  sleep;  his  clothes  were  soiled  and  his  pockets 
stuffed  with  shirts  and  stockings.  He  purchased  three 
rolls  of  bread,  taking  one  under  each  arm  while  he  ate 


Franklin’s  Arrival  in  Philadelphia.  From  Holley’s  -‘Life  of  Franklin,"  1848. 


from  the  other  in  his  hand.  Thus  he  walked  up  the 
street  before  the  home  of  his  future  wife,  who  stood  in 
the  doorway  and  surveyed  the  awkward,  ridiculous  ap- 
pearance of  her  future  husband.  Such  was  the  manner 
of  Franklin’s  beginning  in  Philadelphia. 

There  were  only  two  printers  in  Philadelphia  in  that 
day,  and  both  were  poorly  qualified  for  their  trade. 
Franklin,  therefore,  found  little  difficulty  in  getting 


12 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


work  with  one  of  them,  Keimer  by  name,  who  probably 
was  one  of  the  Protestants  of  the  Cevennes  so  much  per- 
secuted by  Louis  XIV. 

Franklin’s  ability  and'  originality  soon  made  him 
prominent  and  brought  him  into  contact  with  Sir  Wm. 
Keith,  governor  of  the  Province.  This  acquaintance 
came  near  ending  disastrously  for  the  young  man,  or 
rather,  boy,  and  he  then  first  had  some  experience  with 
the  shifty  practices  of  the  well  meaning  but  unscrupu- 
lous politician. 

Keith  tried  to  get  Franklin  to  set  up  in  business  in 
Philadelphia,  and  sent  him  to  Boston  with  a letter  to  his 
father  urging  the  elder  Franklin’s  assistance  for  his  son. 
Benjamin  had  been  away  seven  months,  and  though 
well  received  by  his  family,  except  by  his  brother,  he 
did  not  succeed  in  his  mission.  The  shrewd  Josiah 
seems  to  have  suspected  what  sort  of  person  Sir  William 
was,  and  the  young  man  had  to  return  with  good  will 
and  advice  alone,  but  no  cash. 

The  ready-tongued  governor,  in  a fit  of  generosity 
which  he  did  not  live  up  to,  declared  that  as  long  as 
Benjamin’s  father  refused,  he  would  set  the  young  man 
up  himself. 

He  requested  Franklin  to  make  an  inventory  of  the 
things  needed  in  a printer’s  shop  and  finally  urged  him 
to  go  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  the  stock 
at  the  governor’s  expense. 

The  promised  letters  of  introduction  and  credit  were 
not  forthcoming  before  the  ship  sailed  from  Philadelphia, 
but  being  assured  by  Sir  William  that  they  would  be 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


13 


sent  aboard  at  Newcastle,  Franklin  embarked.  At  New- 
castle the  supposed  packet  was  sent  aboard  but  on  being 
opened  later  no  letters  were  found  for  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin. It  was  an  indecently  cruel  trick  to  thus  impose 
“so  grossly  on  a poor  ignorant  boy”  and  send  him  to  a 
foreign  country  on  a useless  mission.  But  after  all  the 
experience  and  knowledge  thus  gained  were  of  value. 

While  in  London  he  worked  at  his  trade  and  led  a 
somewhat  dissipated  life.  His  infidelity  came  out  in  a 
pamphlet  which  brought  him  some  favor  with  the  •free- 
thinkers of  England 
whose  favor  and  socie- 
ty never  did  anybody 
any  good.  Afterward 
he  destroyed  with  his 
own  hands  nearly  all 
the  100  copies  issued. 

He  was  also  urged  by 
Sir  William  Wyndham, 
ex-Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  to  open  a 
swimming  school  in 
London.  This  was  a 
strong  temptation  for 
he  was  promised  good 
patronage,  but  a desire  to  see  Philadelphia  once  more  and 
the  kind  advice  of  a Mr.  Denham  led  Franklin  to  refuse. 

This  Mr.  Denham  offered  him  a position  as  confiden- 
tial clerk  in  his  mercantile  business  to  be  opened  in 
Philadelphia,  and  Franklin  accepted.  They  returned  to 


Press  used  by  Franklin  while  working  at  his 
trade  in  London  in  1725-6.  Now  in  the 
National  Museum,  Washington,  D.  C. 


'4 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


America  together  after  Franklin  had  been  absent  eigh- 
teen months,  reaching  Philadelphia  October  nth,  1726. 

During  the  voyage  to  America,  Franklin  kept  a diary 
and  recorded  several  interesting  scientific  observations. 
Tears  filled  his  eyes  as  he  approached  his  native  land 
and  he  seems  to  have  been  heartily  glad  to  see  America 
once  more.  The  business  arrangement  with  Mr.  Denham 
was  soon  broken  up  by  the  severe  illness  of  both.  Mr. 
Denham  died  but  Franklin’s  life  was  spared.  He  pro- 
fessed himself  “rather  disappointed”  when  he  found  he 
was  not  going  to  die.  Blit  Benjamin  had  a very  prac- 
tical turn  of  mind,  and  had  a sufficient  sense  of  his  own 
importance  to  occupy  himself  afterward  with  his  famoi.s 
epitaph  which  is  too  renowned  to  omit: 

The  Body 
of 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN, 

(Like  the  cover  of  an  Old  Book, 

Its  Contents  Torr^Out, 

And  Stript  of  Its  Lettering  and  Gilding,) 

Lies  Here,  Food  for  worms. 

Yet  the  work  Itself  Shall  not  Be  Lost, 

For  It  will,  as  He  Believed,  Appear  Once  More, 

In  a New 

And  More  Beautiful  Edition, 

Corrected  and  Amended 
By 

The  Author. 

But  Franklin  got  well  of  his  pleurisy  and  returned  to 
his  old  trade,  this  time  with  his  old  employer,  Keimer. 
He  was  the  life  of  the  shop;  cast  type,  made  the  ink,  en- 
graved, and  bound  the  books.  He  soon  left  Keimer  be- 
cause of  a quarrel  and  jnade  a secret  agreement  with  one 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


’5 


of  Keimer’s  workmen,  Meredith,  to  go  into  partnership 
as  soon  as  they  could  get  the  tools  of  the  trade  from 
London. 

Keimer  having  a chance  to  print  paper  money  for 
New  Jersey,  persuaded  Franklin  to  return  for  a season 
because  he  was  the  only  one  who  could  engrave,  cast 
type,  etc.  He  contrived  for  this  job  the  first  copper 
plate  press  in  America.  What  was  more  important,  he 
had  a chance  to  visit  Burlington  and  become  acquainted 
with  the  influential  men  whose  friendship  proved  after- 
ward of  great  advantage. 

He  soon  set  up  his  business  with  Meredith,  and  after 
a few  months  bought  from  the  shiftless  Keimer  a news- 
paper recently  started  and  called  “The  Universal  In- 
structor in  all  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  Pennsylvania  Ga- 
zette.” This  long  name  being  too  heavy  a burden  for 
a small  paper  with  ninety  subscribers  to  carry,  the  first 
clause  was  chopped  off,  and  being  relieved  of  part  of  its 
burden  the  “Pennsylvania  Gazette”  began  to  prosper 
greatly.  It  soon  became  very  influential,  Franklin’s  first 
number  being  number  forty  issued  October  2d,  1729. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  in  this  paper  Frank- 
lin originated  the  modern  system  of  business  advertising 
that  has  grown  to  such  an  enormous  extent. 

The  other  printer  in  the  town,  Bradford  by  name,  was 
also  postmaster  and  refused  to  allow  his  postriders  to 
carry  Franklin’s  paper  because  he  published  one  him- 
self. This  constituted  no  difficulty  to  Franklin  whose 
code  of  ethics  was  of  a somewhat  elastic  sort.  He  simp- 
ly bribed  the  postriders  with  so  liberal  sums  that  his  pa- 


16  BENJAMIN  EkaNKLIN. 

per  gained  a wide  circulation  and  soon  became  extreme- 
ly profitable.  It  was  well  printed,  and,  especially,  arti- 
cles of  Franklin’s  which  discussed  the  trouble  between 
the  Governor  and  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  and  fore- 
shadowed the  coming  trouble  of  forty  odd  years  later, 
brought  much  favor  to  Franklin  and  many  subscribers 
to  his  paper.  In  the  year  1730  the  partnership  with  Mere- 
dith was  dissolved.  Even  before  this  Franklin  had  formed 
his  famous  debating  society  called  the  Junto, or  The  Leath- 
ern Apron  Club.  The  idea  seems  to  have  been  borrowed 
from  Cotton  Mather’s  Benefit  Societies.  The  members 
entered  upon  the  discussion  of  topics  which  afterward 
became  leading  questions  in  colonial  affairs.  The  Club 
soon  became  of  very  great  influence  and  formed  sub- 
ordinate clubs.  So  began  the  American  system  of  de- 
bating societies. 

One  of  the  questions  taken  up  was  that  of  paper  mon- 
ey which  was  now  coming  to  the  front  in  the  Province. 
Franklin  favored  the  measure  in  his  paper  and  to  such 
good  purpose  that  it  carried,  and  he  got  the  job  of  print- 
ing the  money  which  brought  him  a handsome  sum. 

He  worked  very  hard  at  this  time  and  was  not  above 
making  some  show  of  his  industry  and  frugality.  He 
was  now  induced  by  friends,  who  were  would-be  match- 
makers, to  contemplate  marriage  but  his  mercenary  de- 
mand of  enough  dowry  to  pay  off  the  debt  of  his  print- 
ing house  broke  off  the  match. 

He  then  turned  to  Miss  Reade  to  whom  he  had  prom- 
ised himself  before  he  went  to  London  and  whom  he  had 
conveniently  forgotten.  She  in  the  meantime  had  mar- 


Mrs.  Benjamin  Franklin. 


18  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

ried  a worthless  fellow  who  deserted  her.  The  affection 
between  her  and  Franklin  reviving,  they  were  married 
September  ist,  1730. 

It  has  seemed  wise  to  give  some  space  to  Franklin’s 
early  life  because  of  its  very  great  interest  and  its  im- 
portant bearing  on  his  subsequent  career.  It  was,  how- 
ever, the  least  satisfactory  and  least  to  be  respected  part 
of  his  life.  He  had  pretty  thoroughly  sown  his  wild 
oats  and  had  been  guilty  of  many  indiscretions  that,  but 
for  his  correct  and  helpful  after  life  and  his  exceeding 
great  services  to  his  country,  would  leave  a blot  on  his 
reputation.  In  fact,  if  Benjamin  Franklin  had  not  at 
the  bottom  been  of  sound  character  and  high  aims,  he 
would  never  have  recovered  from  his  early  sins  and  mis- 
takes; but  instead  we  should  read  of  another  disastrous 
failure  in  life. 

We  have  come  to  the  turning  point  in  his  career. 
With  his  marriage  a new  period  in  his  life  begins;  dan- 
gerous tendencies  in  his  character  disappear  and  the  no- 
bler elements  more  strongly  appear.  He  had  always 
been  industrious;  now  he  is  frugal  and  steady. 

His  direct  pungent  style  of  writing  he  puts  to  good 
use  and  the  writing  of  infidel  essays  is  given  over.  His 
full  stock  of  information  which  makes  him  a self-educa- 
ted man;  his  breadth  of  mind  and  charming  originality, 
and  most  of  all  his  sound  judgment  and  wonderful  com- 
mon sense,  are  put  to  the  uses  that  help  his  fellow  men, 
not  only  of  his  own  city  and  colony,  but  of  the  world. 
His  thriftiness  brings  financial  success;  his  happy  mar- 
riage brings  tranquility  of  life  and  correctness  of  living. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


19 

He  becomes  influential  and  public-spirited,  and  what 
Benjamin  Franklin  undertakes  is  pretty  sure  to  be  suc- 
cessful. 

Franklin  is  very  remarkable  for  the  number  of  schemes 
for  social  and  public  improvement  which  he  began  when 
they  would  be  of  vast  influence  on  the  undeveloped  col- 
onies. It  would  be  hard  to  parallel  his  case  in  history. 
The  experience  he  gained  thus  was  of  great  value  to 
himself,  also,  for  he  learned  in  such  matters  to  put  him- 
self in  the  background.  He  says: 

“I  therefore  put  myself  as  much  as  I could  out  of 
sight,  and  stated  it  as  a scheme  of  a number  of  friends, 
who  had  requested  me  to  go  about  and  propose  it.” 

This  method  brought  success  and  is  important  because 
it  was  the  one  he  uniformly  followed  in  after  life.  His 
first  enterprise  of  this  character  was  the  establishment  of 
a library.  He  induced  the  members  of  the  Junto  to 
bring  their  few  books  to  their  club  room  for  the  common 
benefit,  members  being  allowed  to  borrow  books  to  read 
at  home.  This  proved  of  service  and  led  him  to  think 
of  affording  the  benefit  of  reading  to  the  public  by  means 
of  a public  subscription  library.  With  difficulty  he  got 
fifty  persons  to  subscribe  forty  shillings  each  and  ten 
shillings  a year.  The  books  were  imported  and  the  li- 
brary was  open  one  day  in  the  week  to  subscribers  for 
* borrowing  on  their  promissory  notes  to  pay  double  the 
value,  if  the  book  was  not  duly  returned.  This  method 
was  soon  imitated  by  other  towns  and  provinces  and  led 
to  consequences  of  great  moment. 

“They  made,”  he  tells  us,  “the  common  tradesman 


20 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


and  farmers  as  intelligent  as  mos't  gentlemen  from  other 
countries,  and  perhaps  have  contributed  in  some  degree 
to  the  stand  so  generally  made  throughout  the  colonies 
in  defense  of  their  privileges.”  The  library  was  found- 
ed in  1731  and  incorporated  in  1742. 

He  now  began  to  acquire  some  wealth  through  his 
own  industry  and  frugality  and  that  of  his  wife  who 
cheerfully  folded  and  stitched  pamphlets,  tended  shop 
and  purchased  old  linen  rags.  He  considered  himself 
lucky  in  having  such  a wife  and  quoted  the  old  English 
proverb: 

“He  that  would  thrive,  must  first  ask  his  wife.” 

They  lived  very  plainly,  his  breakfast  being  bread  and 
milk  with  no  tea,  eaten  out  of  a “two-penny  earthen 
porringer  with  a pewter  spoon.” 

He  seemed  to  recover  somewhat  from  his  very  strong 
tendency  toward  free-thinking  and  this  new  inclination 
grew  stronger  as  the  years  went  by.  His  experience 
with  himself  and  others  had  convinced  him  that  there 
was  something  wrong  with  his  early  views.  He  even 
wrote  a pamphlet  ill  refutation  of  his  London  screed. 

The  preaching  of  the  day,  which  he  always  helped  to 
support  with  his  money,  lacking  the  inculcating  or  en- 
forcing of  moral  principles,  he  formed  in  1728  a Liturgy 
for  his  own  private  use  and  went  no  more  to  public  wor- 
ship. But  he  strongly  advised  his  daughter  Sarah  to 
never  give  up  Divine  Worship. 

He  now  conceived  the  project  of  arriving  at  moral  per- 
fection. This  illustrates  well  Franklin’s  moral  attitude. 
He  found  the  task,  however,  more  difficult  than  he  had 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


21 


imagined.  Among  the  virtues  in  which  he  meant  to  at- 
tain perfection  were  Temperance,  Order,  Frugality,  Sin- 
cerity, Justice;  and,  on  being  told  by  a candid  Quaker 
friend  that  he  was  proud  and  too  confident  in  his  own 
opinion,  and  being  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  asser- 
tion, he  added  to  the  list  Humility.  He  naively  says 
that  he  had  a good  deal  of  success  with  regard  to  the 
appearance  of  humility. 

In  1732,  he  first  published  his  “Almanac”  under  the 
name  of  Richard  Saunders,  and  it  was  continued  by  him 
as  Poor  Richard’s  Almanac  for  twenty-five  years.  It 
was  the  comic  almanac  of  the  time  and  proved  a great 
success,  circulating  to  the  extent  of  ten  thousand  copies 
per  year. 

It  had  enormous  influence  so  that,  as  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers tells  us,  “ ‘Poor  Richard’  became  a nom  de  plume 
as  renowned  as  any  in  English  literature.”  It  was  one  of 
the  most  influential  publications  in  the  world,  being  re- 
printed in  Great  Britain,  and  translated  into  French  and 
distributed  among  the  poor.  Franklin  thought  that  by 
discouraging  useless  expense  it  helped  toward  the  grow- 
ing plenty  of  money  in  Pennsylvania. 

In  1733  he  began  the  study  of  languages,  and  soon 
had  some  mastery  of  French.  He  then  acquired  a read- 
ing knowledge  of  Italian,  Spanish  and  Latin,  and 
strongly  advocated  this  order  in  learning  languages. 

He  loved  the  game  of  chess,  and  he  persuaded  the 
friend  with  whom  he  played  to  agree  that  the  one  who 
was  beaten  should  learn  the  parts  of  some  Italian  verb, 
or  do  a portion  of  Italian  into  English  before  the  next 


The  University  of  Pennsylvania,  the  outgrowth  of  the  Academy  established 

by  Franklin. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  23 

game.  Thus,  Parton  says,  “they  beat  one  another  into 
the  acquisition  of  the  Italian  language.” 

We  find  him  all  through  his  life  seeking  diversion 
through  music,  also,  which  taste  he  inherited  from  his 
father;  and  he  is  said  to  have  played  on  the  harp,  violin, 
violincello  and  guitar. 

His  political  promotion  began  with  his  being  elected 
Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1736,  and  was  fol- 
lowed the  next  year  by  his  being  appointed  by  Colonel 
Spottiswood,  the  postmaster-general,  his  deputy  in  Phil- 
adelphia. Franklin  found  this  of  great  advantage,  for 
it  increased  the  circulation  of  his  newspaper  and  the  in- 
come from  its  advertisements. 

He  started  the  agitation  which  led  to  a regular  police 
system  instead  of  the  old  city  watch,  and  December  7th, 
1736,  formed  the  Union  Fire  Company,  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  America. 

When  Whitefield  visited  the  colonies  in  1739,  he 
found  Franklin  one  of  his  earnest  supporters.  He  tells 
in  his  inimitable  autobiography  a story  of  how  he  was 
carried  away  by  Whitefield’ s eloquence  and  emptied  his 
pockets,  copper,  silver  and  gold,  into  the  collection  box 
when  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  give  nothing. 

A little  before  this  he  invented  the  Franklin  stove  or 
Pennsylvania  fireplace  which  was  the  beginning  of  the 
American  stove  system.  Franklin  refused  to  take  out  a 
patent  on  it  for  worthy  reasons  which  had  no  effect  on  a 
thrifty  iron-monger  of  London  who  made  some  disadvan- 
tageous changes  and  at  once  secured  a patent. 

In  1743  he  proposed  to  establish  an  academy  but 


24 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


failed;  but  the  next  year  succeeded  in  founding  the  Amer- 
ican Philosophical  Society.  These  various  projects  were 
either  established  through  the  Junto  or  received  valuable 
aid  from  that  unique  organization. 

A few  years  later  he  again  took^  up  the  matter  of  an 
Academy  and  the  result  was  in  time  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

His  mind  was  continually  running  on  scientific  mat- 
ters. He  loved  to  observe  nature.  He  was  a careful  ob- 
server of  ants  and  made  interesting  discoveries  about 
them  and,  in  1743,  he  made  the  discovery  that  the  north- 
east storms  move  backward,  that  is  from  southwest  to 
northeast. 

As  the  war  between  Spain  and  England  came  on  in 
1739,  he  took  up  the  matter  of  the  unprotected  frontier 
of  Pennsylvania  and  wrote  a pamphlet  entitled  “Plain 
Truth,”  setting  out  in  strong  colors  the  defenceless  con- 
dition of  the  colony  and  the  necessity  of  union.  This 
pamphlet  was  the  means  of  a voluntary  association  for 
defence. 

Franklin  and  others  were  sent  to  Governor  Clinton  of 
New  York  for  cannon.  Clinton  at  first  absolutely  re- 
fused to  lend  any,  but  at  night  when  his  council  met  and 
they  had  drunk  a few  glasses  of  Madeira  wine,  the  Gov- 
ernor promised  six;  after  a few  more  glasses  ten,  and 
when  further  intoxicated,  he  advanced  the  number  to 
eighteen,  Franklin  took  his  turn  as  a common  soldier 
in  the  battery.  This  visit  to  New  York  gave  him  some 
acquaintance  with  men  of  prominence. 

Franklin  proposed  a lottery  to  defray  the  expenses  of 


George  Clinton.  Colonial  Governor  of  New  York. 


26 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


building  the  battery.  He  now  discovered  that  in  defen- 
sive warfare  the  Quakers  would  offer  no  obstacle,  for 
when  New  England  solicited  a grant  of  powder  from 
Pennsylvania,  the  Quakers  voted  ^3,000  for  the  pur- 
chase of  bread,  flour  wheat,  or~  other  “grain,”  which 
latter  meant  gunpowder. 

Franklin  in  1748,  took  into  partnership  David  Hall 
who  had  been  a fellow  workman  in  London,  in  order 
that  he  might  have  more  leisure.  He  then  turned  his 
attention  toward  scientific  investigations,  especially  in 
electricity. 

But  the  people  needed  his  services  and  he  had  to  serve 
as  justice  of  the  peace,  in  the  Common  Council,  and  as 
their  representative  in  the  Assembty,  which  latter  posi- 
tion pleased  him  especially.  He  was  also  elected  by  the 
House  as  one  of  the  Commissioners  for  treating  with  the 
Indians  at  Carlisle.  The  Commissioners  with  difficulty 
persuaded  the  Indians  to  keep  sober  during  the  time  of 
the  treaty  by  promising  plenty  of  rum  afterward,  which 
promise  was  kept. 

In  1751,  he  assisted  Dr.  Bond,  whose  skillful  flattery 
won  him  over,  to  found  a hospital  in  Philadelphia.  He 
got  a conditional  grant  from  the  Assembly  of  $10,000  for 
the  purpose. 

He  also  interested  himself  in  schemes  for  street  clean- 
ing, paving  and  lighting,  which  afterward  became  organ- 
ized efforts.  He  improved  on  the  London  lamps  by 
making  them  of  four  flat  panes  with  openings  for  air  be- 
low, which  the  smoky  London  lamps  did  not  have. 

Tradition  tells  us  also  the  story  of  the  introduction  of 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


2 7 


plaster  as  a fertilizer;  how  Franklin  in  a field  by  the  high- 
road wrote  in  large  letters  with  plaster: — “This  Has 
Been  Plastered;”  and  how  the  brilliant  green  of  the  in- 
creased growth  made  the  words  very  plain  to  the  aston- 
ished farmers. 

Having  acted  for  some  years  as  comptroller  under  the 
postmaster-general  of  America,  he  was,  upon  the  death 
of  that  officer,  appointed  conjointly  with  Mr.  William 
Hunter  to  succeed  him.  This  was  in  the  year  1753  and 
marks  the  time  wdien  Franklin  began  to  have  a part  in 
the  more  important  matters  of  the  colonies  as  a whole. 
The  American  office  had  never  paid  the  British  govern- 
ment any  revenue,  but  before  Franklin  got  through  with 
its  management  it  paid  three  times  as  much  net  revenue 
as  the  Ireland  office.  After  he  was  displaced  “by  a freak 
of  the  minister”  it  again  ceased  to  pay.  His  connection 
with  the  post  office  was  a matter  of  importance. 

He  was  now  a rising  man  in  colonial  affairs.  It  led  to 
his  travelling  in  New  England  and  gave  him  an  acquain- 
tance there  which  had  some  bearing  011  after  events. 
Harvard  then  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Master 
of  Arts.  Yale  had  already  done  so,  the  honor  in  both 
cases  being  in  recognition  of  his  discoveries  in  electricity. 

As  the  French  and  Indian  war  came  on,  the  Lords  of 
Trade  (1753)  directed  the  governors  of  various  provinces 
to  have  commissioners  sent  by  the  assemblies  to  treat 
with  the  Six  Nations  and  to  form  a union  for  general  de- 
fence. The  place  of  meeting  was  to  be  Albany  on  ac- 
count of  its  convenience  and  nearness  to  the  Six  Na- 
tions. 


28 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


Franklin  was  appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
Pennsylvania  and  the  Congress  met  in  June,  1754.  On 
the  way  to  Albany  Franklin  drew  up  a plan  of  union 
which  he  says  in  his  autobiography  was  for  all  the  col- 
onies. This  plan,  which  was  his  so-called  “Short  Flints,” 
he  showed  to  his  friends  in  New  York,  in  whose  judg- 
ment he  had  confidence,  i.  e.,  James  Alexander  and  Cad- 
wallader  ‘Colden.  The  “Short  Flints,”  however,  referred 
at  first,  at  least,  to  a union  of  northern  colonies  only. 

Alexander  and  Colden  offered  some  criticisms  and  sug- 
gestions which  Franklin  made  some  slight  use  of. 

At  the  Convention  several  plans  of  union  were  proposed 
but  the  Committee  appointed  to  draw  up  plans,  of  which 
Thomas  Hutchinson  of  Massachusetts  and  Benjamin 
Franklin  of  Pennsylvania  were  members,  chose  Frank- 
lin’s and  reported  it  with  some  modifications  and  it  was 
adopted.  There  were  twenty-five  delegates  from  only 
seven  states ; all  of  which,  except  Maryland,  were  north- 
ern states.  When  the  plan  of  union  was  submitted  to 
the  colonies  their  assemblies  rejected  it  without  exception 
because  it  gave  the  Crown  too  much  power. 

When  submitted  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations 
it  was  rejected  because  it  gave  too  much  power  to  the 
colonies.  It  was,  however,  a very  important  step  in  the 
evolution  of  a national  idea  and  Franklin  had  his  full 
share  in  it.  The  real  reason  why  England  rejected  the 
plan  of  union  was  not  that  it  gave  the  colonies  too  much 
specific  power,  but  because  it  formulated  a tendency  to- 
ward organic  union  that  the  home  government  was 
alarmed  at,  although  its  order  had  led  to  it. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


29 


Franklin  thought  afterward  that  the  adoption  of  his 
scheme  might  have  made  the  assistance  of  the  English 
troops  in  the  French  and  Indian  war  unnecessary,  pre- 
vented the  attempts  to  tax  the  colonies  for  the  expense 
of  the  war,  and  so  prevented  the  Revolution.  But  that 
was  mere  fancy. 

In  the  winter  of  1754-5  he  had  some  conversation  with 
Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts  over  the  relations  of 
the  colonies  to  the  mother  country.  Shirley  seemed  to 
favor  a scheme,  to  take  the  place  of  the  one  rej'ected,  by 
which  the  governors  of  the  provinces  and  their  councils 
should  meet  and  order  the  raising  of  troops,  etc.,  and 
draw  on  the  imperial  treasury  for  funds  which  should  be 
returned  by  a tax  levied  by  Parliament  on  the  colonies. 

Franklin  took  alarm  at  once  and  wrote  three  letters 
in  December,  1754,  setting  out  the  principle  of  no  taxa- 
tion without  representation.  These  letters  were  afterward 
published  in  the  London  “Chronicle”  in  December,  1766. 
Franklin  thus  laid  out  before  hand  the  plan  of  campaign 
according  to  which  the  Revolution  was  fought.  He,  how- 
ever, injudiciously  admitted  the  right  of  Parliament  to  lay 
what  he  called  secondary  taxes  through  the  operation  of 
the  Navigation  Acts.  Shirley  proposed  that  the  colo- 
nies be  represented  in  Parliament,  but  Franklin  thought 
that  hardly  practicable. 

He  was  sw^ept  into  the  vortex  of  the  war  and  gained 
experience  of  value  in  the  coming  struggles  for  indepen- 
dence. The  inevitable  struggle  between  England  and 
France  for  the  ownership  of  North  America  had  begun. 
The  contest  seemed  very  unequal  when  we  consider  that 


30  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

there  were  over  a million  whites  in  the  British  Prov- 
inces and  only  80,000  French  in  Canada. 

The  outcome  of  the  contest  therefore  could  not  be  in 
doubt,  though  the  concentrated  administration  of  Cana- 
da and  the  incompetency  of  the  English  put  off  the  inev- 
itable. 

Braddock’s  campaign  and  defeat  cost  Franklin  dear 
because  he  was  induced  to  persuade  his  fellow  citizens  of 
Pennsylvania  to  let  out  their  horses  and  wagons  to  haul 
supplies  and  baggage  for, the  army.  They  first  insisted 
on  his  giving  them  a bond  for  the  value  of  their  property, 
which  he  did.  The  loss  through  Braddock’s  defeat  was 
about  $100,000,  which  Franklin  was  bound  to  pay.  Suits 
were  instituted  and  he  was  only  saved  from  ruin  by  Shir- 
ley, who  appointed  a commission  to  audit  and  pay  the 
claims.  Part  of  the  money  which  he  had  advanced  he 
never  received.  Against  his  own  judgment  he  was,  dur- 
ing the  war,  appointed  Colonel  of  a regiment  and  sent 
with  a small  force  to  build  forts  on  the  frontier.  He  did 
his  work  well. 

About  this  time  he  conceived  the  idea  of  extending 
the  colonies  inland  over  the  mountains,  thinking  that  in 
a century  the  Ohio  Valley  might  become  a populous  and 
powerful  domain;  and  such  it  has  become  even  beyond 
his  wildest  dreams. 

Ever  since  1746  Franklin  had  been  engaged  in  elec- 
trical experiments  which  culminated  in  his  celebrated 
proof  of  the  identity  of  lightning  with  the  electric  spark. 
The  story  is  one  of  the  most  famous  in  history. 

Standing  under  an  old  cow-shed  after  they  had  raised 


Braddock’s  Retreat. 


32 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


their  kite  in  the  rain,  Franklin  and  his  son  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  drawing  from  the  key  at  the  end  of  the  hemp- 
en kite-string  unmistakable  sparks.  They  then  filled  a 
Leyden  jar  which  they  had  carried  with  them,  and  the 
next  ship  to  Europe  took  the  news  of  the  discovery. 

Having  been  provided  by  Mr.  P.  Collinson,  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  London,  (whom  he  had  known  in 
England),  with  a glass  tube  for  use  in  his  experiment,  he 
soon  had  his  house  continually  full  of  “people  who  came 
to  see  these  new  wonders.” 

He  wrote  several  lectures  and  set  up  an  ingenious 
neighbor  as  lecturer  with  machines  made  after  Franklin’s 
models  and  sent  him  through  the  colonies  and  even  down 
to  the  West  Indies.  He  then  wrote  Collinson  several  let- 
ters about  his  experiments,  and  sent  the  paper  he  had 
written  for  his  neighbor  on  the  sameness  of  lightning 
with  electricity  to  Dr.  Mitchell,  one  of  the  Royal  Society. 
The  Royal  Society,  however,  poked  fun  at  Franklin’s 
papers.  They  fell  afterward  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Foth- 
ergill  who  saw  their  worth  and  had  them  printed  and 
wrote  a preface  for  the  publication.  A copy  of  this  came 
into  the  hands  of  Count  de  Buffon,  was  translated  in- 
to French  and  began  to  attract  very  general  attention. 
It  was  afterward  translated  into  Italian,  German  and  Lat- 
in, and  Franklin  had  full  revenge  upon  the  pedants  who 
derided  him.  He  was  chosen  a member  of  the  Royal 
Society  and  presented  with  the  medal  of  Sir  Godfrey  Cop- 
ley for  the  year  1753. 

Franklin  incurred  the  enmity  of  the  proprietaries  of 
Pennsylvania  by  his  conduct  in  the  Assembly.  He  was 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


33 


the  leader  in  the  legislature  and  opposed  very  warmly  the 
exemption  of  the  estate  of  the  proprietaries  from  taxation. 
He  even  denounced  their  motives  as  mean  and  unjust  in 
demanding  exemption. 

The  full  force  of  their  displeasure,  fell  of  course,  upon 
the  leader,  and  we  have  in 
a sense  a beginning  of  the 
struggle  that  was  to  issue  in 
a contest,  not  between  a pro- 
prietary and  his  colony,  but 
between  a King  and  his  sub- 
jects. The  proprietaries  ac- 
cused Franklin  in  turn  with 
an  intention  of  assuming  the 
government  of  Pennsylvania 

by  force.  They  even  tried  to  Gold  Medal  presented  to  Franklin  by 

. , . ir  i • the  Royal  Society  of  London. 

get  him  removed  from  his 

office  as  post-master  general  for  America  but  without  suc- 
cess. 

The  Assembly  meantime,  were  in  a chronic  state  of 
wrangling  with  the  governor,  who  was  torn  with  conflict- 
ing desires  to  please  the  King,  the  proprietaries  and  the 
Assembly.  Franklin  and  the  governor  seem,  however, 
to  have  kept,  personally,  on  good  terms.  The  struggle 
between  the  Assembly  and  the  proprietaries  soon  came 
to  a head.  The  proprietaries  insisted  on  a course  of  act- 
ion which  the  Assembly  construed  as  inconsistent  with 
the  privileges  of  the  people  and  the  service  of  the  crown. 
The  Assembly  therefore  determined  to  send  a petition  to 
the  crown  in  their  behalf  and  to  send  Franklin  as  their 


34 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


agent  in  support  of  the  petition.  After  a long  delay  oc- 
casioned by  Lord  Loudon’s  indecision,  which  Franklin 
graphically  and  humorously  describes,  he  succeeded  in 
getting  off,  although  his  baggage  had  all  gone  on  be- 
fore. It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Loudon  was  char- 
acterized by  one  of  Franklin’s  friends  as  “like  St. 
George  on  the  signs,  always  on  horseback , but  never 
rides  on 

Franklin  was  waiting  on  Loudon  partly  to  recover  the 
balance  due  him  for  provisions  furnished  Braddock’s 
army.  Although  Loudon’s  paymaster  found  the  accounts 
entirely  accurate,  Loudon  himself  refused  to  pay,  coarse- 
ly intimating  that  Franklin,  like  other  contractors,  had 
found  a means  of  recompense  by  stealing  from  the  pub- 
lic treasury.  But  after  the  fiasco  at  Louisburg,  Loudon 
was  recalled,  too  absurdly  incompetent  to  be  of  use  in 
the  New  World. 

Franklin  was,  among  other  things,  attempting  to  in- 
duce the  Crown  to  resume  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania 
as  his  own.  But  there  seemed  to  be  no  good  prospect 
of  the  success  of  this  mission;  for  about  the  time  that 
Franklin  was  appointed,  the  House  of  Commons  passed 
a resolution  that  the  claim  of  the  colonial  Assemblies  of 
the  right  to  raise  and  disburse  public  money  on  their 
own  authority  was  derogatory  to  the  crown  and  the  rights 
of  the  English  people. 

Franklin  was  accompanied  by  his  son  as  secretary. 
They  were  chased  by  the  French  several  times,  but  es- 
caped. On  his  way  to  London  from  Falmouth  he 
stopped  at  Stonehenge  and  arrived  in  the  British  capital 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  35 

July  27th,  1757.  He  soon  had  an  interview  with  Lord 
Granville,  president  of  the  council,  and  was  alarmed  at 
the  position  then  taken  by  that  statesman.  Franklin 
was  told  in  substance  that  the  king’s  instructions  to  his 
governors  were  the  “ law  of  the  land , for  the  king  is  the 
legislator  of  the  colonies.”  Somewhat  aghast,  he  an- 
swered that  that  was  new  doctrine  to  him.  No  wonder 
he  was  alarmed. 

Franklin  did  not  get  on  well  with  the  proprietaries. 
Each  side  justified  its  own  acts,  and  there  seemed  to  be 
little  hope  of  agreement.  In  fact  Franklin  had  under- 
taken a negotiation  with  the  proprietaries  only  on  the 
advice  of  Dr.  Fothergill,  mentioned  before.  He  was  now 
told  to  negotiate  with  the  solicitor  of  the  proprietaries, 
Ferdinand  John  Paris,  who  had  conducted  their  disputes 
with  the  Assembly.  But  he  already  had  a mortal  enmi- 
ty to  Franklin  because  the  latter  had,  when  answering 
the  papers  and  messages  sent  to  the  Assembly,  handled 
him  without  gloves.  For  Franklin  knew  how  to  wield 
a sharp  pen  on  occasion. 

Paris  was  such  “a  proud,  angry  man,”  that  Franklin 
refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him.  The  business 
was  then  turned  over  to  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor-Gen- 
eral. 

The  matter  dragged  on  for  more  than  a year  during 
which  time  Paris  got  even  with  his  enemy  by  sending 
for  the  proprietaries  a message  to  the  Assembly  com- 
plaining of  Franklin’s  rudeness,  and  professing  willing- 
ness to  accommodate  matters  if  “some  person  of  can- 
dour” was  sent  to  treat  with  them.  But  the  Assembly 


36  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

got  back  at  them  by  passing  an  act  taxing  the  proprie- 
tary estate  in  common  with  others  and  omitting  to  an- 
swer the  message  at  all. 

This  whole  matter  has  an  extremely  humorous  flavor. 
In  those  times  they  did  not  preserve  the  amenities  of 
life,  nor  were  our  ancestors  backward  in  giving  as  good 

as  was  sent.  When 
this  Act  reached  Eng- 
land for  ratification  by 
the  king,  there  was  a 
great  effort  made  to  de- 
feat it.  But  as  it  in- 
volved a vital  point  of 
the  right  of  the  Assem- 
bly to  tax  the  proprie- 
tary estate,  Franklin 
fought  hard  to  get  it 
ratified.  The  matter 
of  $500,000  of  paper 
money  was  involved  in 
this  dispute  also,  and 
the  legality  of  the  issu- 
ing of  bills  of  creidit.  By  making  some  concessions,  the 
act  was  ratified  and  the  Assembly  won. 

Franklin  had  been  kept  in  this  business  three  years 
or  more,  for  he  had  found  himself  very  much  hampered 
because  he  was  merely  the  agent  of  the  colonists  and  so 
a person  of  no  importance. 

He  vainly  tried  to  get  an  interview  with  William  Pitt. 
Yet  in  other  ways  he  found  friends.  His  scientific  dis- 


David  Hume. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  37 

coveries  had  made  him  a reputation  and  he  was  wel- 
comed into  the  literary  circle  of  such  men  as  Lord  Kames 
and  David  Hume. 

He  traveled  extensively,  going  even  to  the  Low  Coun- 
tries; was  made  Doctor  of  Laws  by  the  Universities  of 
St.  Andrews  and  Oxford.  This  all  led  to  a Strong  af- 
fection for  England  as  time  went  by.  One  of  his  friends, 
Mr.  Strahan,  tried  hard  to  get  him  to  make  England  his 
permanent  home,  and  offered  his  son  in  marriage  with 
Franklin’s  daughter.  But  Mrs.  Franklin  did  not  look 
kindly  on  an  ocean  voyage. 

Just  at  this  time  Franklin  himself  was  trying  to  in- 
duce his  son  William  to  marry  an  English  girl,  Mary 
Stevenson,  whom  he  had  taken  a strong  fancy  to.  He 
also  failed,  and  so  no  family  bonds  united  him  to  the 
mother  country. 

It  would  have  been  a hard  blow  to  the  colonies  if  all 
these  efforts  had  succeeded  in  making  Franklin  a natur- 
alized Englishman. 

The  fall  of  Quebec  in  1759  had  practically  ended  the 
French  and  Indian  war.  Now  arose  a question  of  vital 
importance  to  the  colonies.  England,  though  the  con- 
queror, desired  peace,  and  the  question  was  whether  to 
retain  Guadeloupe  or  Canada,  both  of  which  had  been 
conquered. 

The  discussion  of  this  question  showed  with  what 
penetration  some  foresaw  the  coming  splitting  off  of  the 
colonies  from  the  mother  country.  Many  opposed  the 
retention  of  Canada,  because  Canada  in  the  hands  of  the 
French  would  always  keep  the  British  colonies  depen- 


38 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


dent  upon  England.  Some  went  so  far  as  to  say  that 
even  if  England  could  get  Canada  without  any  sacrifice 
at  all  she  should  not  desire  it. 

Franklin  had  some  important  part  in  this  discussion 
and  with  searching  directness  showed  that  the  French 
occupation  of  Canada  was  a menace  to  the  English  pos- 
sessions, and  that  to  leave  them  there  as  a check  upon  the 
colonies  only  gave  license  to  Indian  barbarities. 

In  regard  to  the  probable  union  of  the  colonies,  he 
was  not  wholly  ingenuous.  That  was  what  England 
feared,  and  Franklin  labored  to  show  that  such  union 
was  impossible  except  under  the  most  grievous  tyranny 
and  oppression. 

Attorney-General  Pratt  did  not  believe  in  Franklin’s 
boast  of  colonial  loyalty  and  thought  that  an  attempt  at 
their  independence  was  sure  to  come.  Choiseul,  the 
French  Minister,  and  Vergennes  thought  the  same. 

Franklin  returned  home  late  in  1762.  The  Assembly 
voted  him  $15,000  for  his  expenses,  although  he  had 
spent  much  more.  His  friends  filled  his  house  in  suc- 
cession for  many  days,  coming  to  congratulate  him  on 
tiis  return. 

The  English  government  tried  its  hand  at  diplomacy, 
also,  and  in  the  Autumn  of  1762  appointed  his  son  Will- 
iam governor  of  New  Jersey.  Lord  Bute  seems  to  have 
brought  this  about.  There  was  considerable  intimacy 
between  him  and  Franklin, for  Bute  was  a man  fond  of 
books  and  an  experimenter  in  science.  Franklin  took 
no  part  in  securing  the  position  — a valuable  one  — for  his 
son.  This  appointment  resulted  in  William  becoming  a 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


39 


royalist  and  afterward  a Tory  refugee  and  led  to  an  ali- 
enation between  father  and  son  that  was  only  partially 
healed. 

Franklin  was  now  fifty-six  years  old.  He,  however, 
threw  himself  into  business  both  public  and  private,  and 
in  1763  traveled  1600  miles  looking  after  the  postal  bus- 
iness of  the  colonies. 

He  was  still  a member  of  the  Assembly  and  soon  got 
into  trouble  with  the  governor,  John  Penn,  who  far  from 
measured  up  to  the  character  of  the  founder  of  the  Prov- 
ince. P'ranklin  had  helped  Penn  in  a marked  way  dur- 
ing the  excitement  over  the  Paxton  massacre  in  which 
excitement  Penn  had  acted  an  ignoble  part,  but  on  this 
very  account  Penn  disliked  Franklin  the  more. 

The  new  governor,  from  whom  much  was  expected 
because  of  his  fair  words,  soon  began  the  old  quarrel 
with  the  Assembly.  The  ancient  trouble  over  the  tax 
levy  on  the  proprietary’s  land  came  up  anew.  Franklin 
took  a prominent  part  in  the  hot  discussions  and  the 
people  thought  of  again  asking  the  Crown  to  assume  the 
government  of  the  colony. 

During  a recess  of  the  Assembly  he  wrote  a pamphlet 
entitled  “Cool  Thoughts  on  the  Present  Situation  of  our 
Public  Affairs.”  He  discussed  the  matter  ably  and 
impartially  and  was  keen  enough  to  see  that  neither 
the  proprietary  nor  the  people  were  different  from  others 
of  their  class,  and  that  the  trouble  resided  in  the  very 
nature  of  proprietary  government  and  would  last  as  long 
as  it  lasted. 

He  advised  an  immediate  Royal  Government.  He 


40 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


drew  up  a petition  to  the  King  in  Council  showing  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  in  a proprietary  governor,  and 
praying  his  Majesty  to  presume  the  government  of  the 
Province. 

The  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  not  having  the  courage 
to  take  so  important  a step  even  after  the  measure  was 
carried  resigned,  and  Franklin  was  chosen  in  his  stead 
and  affixed  the  official  signature  to  the  petition. 

These  disturbances  led  to  deep  animosity  on  Frank- 
lin’s part  toward  the  Penns  and  to  bitter  hatred  of  Frank- 
lin on  the  side  of  the  proprietary  party  in  Pennsylvania. 
So  strong  did  Franklin’s  enemies  become  that  they  de- 
feated him  for  the  Assembly  in  1764.  But  the  new  As- 
sembly promptly  took  into  consideration  his  appoint- 
ment as  Agent  to  the  King  in  Council  in  support  of  the 
petition  for  the  Crown  to  assume  the  government.  This 
was  a bitter  pill  to  Franklin’s  enemies.  They  tried  to 
defeat  the  measure  and  failing  in  this,  passionately  urged 
him  to  refuse  the  honor.  He,  however,  accepted. 

Franklin  was  ready  to  return  to  England  within  two 
weeks  after  his  election.  Because  of  lack  of  money  in 
the  treasury  of  the  colony,  some  well-to-do  citizens  had 
to  make  up  a private  fund,  part  of  which  Franklin  took. 

His  enemies  made  much  of  his  being  escorted  to  his 
ship  by  mounted  citizens  whose  kindly  service  he  was 
not  informed  of,  and  which  he  could  not  refuse. 

He  reached  the  Isle  of  Wight  December  9th,  1764, 
and  went  at  once  to  London  to  his  old  lodgings  at  No.  7 
Craven  Street,  Strand.  His  lodgings  were  with  Mrs. 
Stevenson  whose  daughter  Mary  he  wished  for  his  son 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  41 

William.  His  affectionate  letters  to  his  wife  show  that  he 
thought  his  stay  would  be  only  ten  or  twelve  months, but 
it  was  ten  years  before  he  returned  again  to  America. 

The  great  oncoming  struggle  was  throwing  its  shadow 
before.  While  Franklin  was  sent  as  the  agent  of  but 
one  colony  on  a matter  of  trivial  importance,  his  field 
of  operation  was  of  necessity  widened  by  the  inevitable 
course  of  events  until  he  became  the  representative  of  a 
whole  people  in  regard  to  the  most  vital  issues  that 
could  absorb  the  attention  of  a continent. 

The  matters  in  his  hands  grew  more  and  more  com- 
plex, and  caused  him  more  and  more  anxiety,  and  drew 
him  on  further  and  further,  until  in  the  English  eye  he 
stood  as  the  personification  of  rebellion. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  more  than  one  statesman, 
English  or  French,  had  foreseen  the  destiny  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  that  the  plan  of  union  of  1754  had  been  re- 
jected by  the  Eords  of  Trade  because  it  would  produce 
an  organized,  consolidated  power  in  the  colonies.  But, 
although  the  theory  of  union  had  failed  of  recognition, 
the  fact  of  union  was  evident.  The  war  had  done  that. 
It  “had  moved  the  colonies  into  a perilous  foreground.” 

Another  thing;  the  war  had  shown  the  colonies  their 
own  strength  as  a military  power. 

Still  again,  it  had  made  clear  their  immense  financial 
resources;  and  these  took  on  enormous  proportions  when 
the  development  of  the  future  was  considered.  All  of 
these  things  except  the  last  had  been  dimly  apparent  to 
Great  Britain.  The  financial  resources  of  the  colonies 
came  as  a positive  revelation  to  the  British  government. 


X2 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


What  this  meant,  what  use  could  be  made  of  it,  became 
at  once  entirely  clear  to  a government  compelled  to  in- 
crease its  taxation  on  an  already  over-burdened  people. 

The  government  over-estimated  the  advantages  of  the 
war  to  the  colonies  in  contradistinction  to  the  benefit  to 
Great  Britain,  and  under-estimated  the  share  of  the  bur- 
den that  the  colonies  had  borne  in  the  war.  The  minis- 
try claimed  that  the  war  was  undertaken  in  defence  of 
the  colonies,  when  in  fact  it  was  to  stop  encroachments 
upon  territory  of  the  British  Empire.  It  was  claimed 
further  that  the  war  was  undertaken  because  the  colo- 
nies could  not  defend  themselves  against  the  French  and 
Indians,  when  they  not  only  could  do  so  but  had  done  so. 

But  it  was  at  bottom  a dispute  that  was  sure  to  arise 
between  a colony  and  the  mother  country  under  the  ex- 
isting colonial  system. 

The  Stamp  Act  of  1765  was  no  change  in  policy  in 
any  sense;  it  was  all  contained  in  the  navigation  and  co- 
lonial system  of  England  after  1651. 

This  is  well  shown  by  the  fact  that  when  the  ministry 
tried  to  relieve  the  overtaxed  people  of  England  by 
throwing  part  of  the  charges  of  the  tvar  on  the  colonies 
by  direct  act  of  Parliament,  it  began  by  revising  the 
Navigation  Act.  In  general,  ever  since  1651  the  Navi- 
gation Act  had  either  not  been  enforced  at  all  or  had 
been  evaded  by  smuggling.  It  was  now  intended  to 
enforce  it  by  reducing  the  duties  which  had  before 
been  so  high  as  to  be  uncollectible,  and  thus  obtain  rev- 
enue. All  economists  of  the  time  seemed  to  agree  upon 
the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  navigation  acts.  Even 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


43 


Adam  Smith  later  could  not  entirely  divorce  himself 
from  old  traditions.  Nor  could  the  ministry  say  that 
money  for  the  king’s  service  had  not  readily  been  ob- 
tained. Upon  requisition  from  the  Secretary  of  State 
the  assemblies  had  uniformly  appropriated  money  up  to 
the  limit  of  their  ability.  In  the  late  war  they  had  lost 
30,000  men  in  the  field  and  spent  $15,000,000. 

The  new  efforts  to  tax  America  began  in  1763,  when 
George 'Grenville  took  up,  Townshend’s  plan  already  re- 
ferred to.  The  colonists  had  one  weak  point.  They 
had  always  professed  willingness  to  submit  to  any  indi- 
rect taxation  such  as  was  laid  for  the  ostensible  benefit 
of  English  trade.  So  Grenville  started  in  to  regulate 
trade  along  this  line. 

His  method  was  to  the  effect  that  first,  the  colonies 
could  purchase  goods  in  England  alone;  second,  that 
colonies  should  not  manufacture  any  articles  which  they 
could  purchase  from  England;  third,  that  they  could  not 
trade  with  one  another  in  articles  which  would  in  any 
way  directly  or  indirectly  interfere  with  English  trade. 
To  this,  in  1764,  it  was  intended  to  add  an  act  which 
would  be  in  the  nature  of  direct  taxation.  This  was  the 
Stamp  Act.  Grenville  gave  notice  of  his  intention  to 
introduce  it  later. 

Very  few  in  England  seemed  to  think  that  this  would 
meet  with  any  determined  opposition.  Franklin,  how- 
ever, before  he  set  out  for  England  in  1764,  heard  of  the 
coming  step  and  opposed  it  in  the  Assembly.  He  carried 
with  him  the  protest  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania. 
He  visited  Grenville  and  protested  against  the  Act,  but 


44 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


tp  no  purpose.  It  became  a law  March  226.,  1765. 

It  seems  at  first  glance  strange  that  Franklin,  after 
the  Act  became  a law,  apparently  looked  upon  it  as  some- 
thing that  the  colonies  would  have  to  submit  to  as  best 
they  might. 

In  one  of  his  letters  he  speaks,  not  of  opposition,  but 
of  frugality  and  industry  by  which  to  indemnify  the 
people  for  their  loss  through  the  Stamp  Act. 

He  was  much  discouraged  and  despondent  although 
his  mind  did  not  lose  its  philosophical  way  of  looking  at 
things.  He  looked  upon  forcible  resistance  as  not  only 
entirely  unlikely  but  impossible.  It  was  only  in  the 
dim  future,  when  the  colonies  had  greatly  increased  in 
numbers,  that  he  saw  any  chance  of  secession.  In  fact 
it  was  much  easier  to  think  and  talk  resistance  three 
thousand  miles  away,  than  it  was  in  England  itself 
where  the  seemingly  overwhelming  power  of  Great  Brit- 
ain was  everywhere  manifest. 

But  Grenville  intended,  as  he  told  Franklin,  to  make 
the  execution  of  the  Act  as  little  inconvenient  as  possi- 
ble, and  so  arranged  to  have  for  stamp  distributors 
American  born  and  not  Englishmen.  Strangely  enough 
he  succeeded  in  getting  Franklin  to  nominate  a man  in 
Philadelphia. 

This  mistake  almost  ruined  Franklin  who  did  not  at 
all  understand  the  temper  of  the  colonists,  and  is  to  be 
explained  on  the  ground  that  he,  over-awed  by  the  man- 
ifest power  of  the  mother  country,  looked  upon  any 
thing  else  but  submission  as  madness.  He  was  de- 
nounced in  Pennsylvania  ns  a traitor.  All  sorts  of  ru- 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


• 45 

mors  were  set  afloat.  He  was  said  to  have  actually 
planned  the  Stamp  Act, and  in  some  of  the  coarse  cuts  of 
the  time  the  devil  was  represented  as  making  “Ben”  his 
agent  throughout  his  dominions.  This  all  hurt  him  very 
keenly.  He  was  taken  by  surprise  because  he  was  total- 
ly unconscious  of  wrong.  The  bitter,  frenzied  denunci- 
ation of  him,  the  threatened  mob  violence  upon  his  house 
and  his  wife  and  daughter,  fairly  took  his  breath  away. 
Truly  he  had  raised  a tempest  of  great  proportions. 

In  this  connection  we  must  remember  the  growing  af- 
fection which  he  had  conceived  for  the  mother  country. 
That  was  of  influence  on  his  mind.  But  his  patriotism 
was  us  pure  and  undying  as  any  man’s,  and  the  news 
from  America  at  once  woke  him  to  the  true  state  of  af- 
fairs ^<id  he  hastened  to  take  his  stand  squarely  and 
firmly  with  his  countrymen. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  this  only  occasion  when 
Franklin  failed  to  accurately  judge  and  reflect  the  opin- 
ions and  wishes  of  the  colonies. 

The  Act  had  become  a feature  in  English  politics  and 
the  foes  of  the  government  now  attacked  the  measure 
although  the  belief  in  it  had  been  well  nigh  universal. 
But  Grenville  had  things  well  in  hand.  He  was  grow- 
ing daily  stionger  in  Parliament  and  the  cause  of  the 
colonies  seemed  lost.  But  all  of  a sudden  the  erratic 
and  half 'insane  George  III  drove  out  of  office  the  man 
who  was  best  qualified  and  most  likely  to  bring  about 
the  very  results  desired  by  the  Crown.  * 

Pitt  tried  to  form  a ministry  but  failed,  and  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  who  succeeded  could  get  together  only  a 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


46 


weak  and  odd  patchwork  of  a cabinet.  But  in  other  di- 
rections a strong  agency  was  working  against  the  Stamp 
Act.  The  Americans  had  formed  their  non-importation 
agreements.  They  iiriported  no  more  English  cloth  or 
other  goods.  They  killed  no  sheep  for  food  but  raised 
wool  for  homespun  cloth.  English  manufacturers  lost  a 
profitable  market  and  began  to  go  into  bankruptcy. 

Commerce  and 
shipping  were  af- 
fected; all  branch- 
es of  business  suf- 
fered. 

John  Milton  tru- 
ly said  in  one  of 
his  prose  produc- 
tions, that  when 
you  touch  an  Eng- 
• lishman  in  h i s 
pocket  you  touch 
his  very  life.  So 
it  was  here.  The 

Stamp  Act  now  touched  the  Englishman  personally,  in 
his  home,  and  although  he  cared  nothing  for  the  colon- 
ists, yet  he  became  an  enemy  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  the 
ministry. 

To  add  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  government,  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  died.  In  January,  1766,  Pitt  took 
up  the  cudgel  for  the  colonies  and  denied  Grenville’s  as- 
sertion that  taxation  is  a part  of  that  sovereign  power 
which  England  had  over  America.  He  also  denounced 


Franklin  in  1766. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


47 


the  fiction  that  the  colonies  were  virtually  represented  in 
Parliament,  as  of  the  Manor  of  East  Greenwich,  as  “the 
most  contemptible  that  ever  entered  into  the  head  of 
man.  ” Thus  the  movement  began  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Act.  Parliament,  however,  took  its  stand  on  its  rights 
first  and  passed  a resolution  that  the  King  in  Parliament 
had  full  power  to  bind  the  colonies  in  all  cases.  This 
was  a sop  to  the  King  to  get  him  to  sign  the  repeal. 

While  Parliament  was  considering  the  repeal,  Frank- 
lin was  called  as  a witness  before  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  committee  of  the  whole.  This  examina- 
tion “perhaps  displayed  his  ability  to  better  advantage 
than  any  other  single  act  in  his  life.  ” His  statements 
were  pithy,  searching,  courageous,  moderate,  able  and 
in  good  temper. 

He  made  it  clear  that  the  colonies  would  never  submit 
to  the  Stamp  Act  or  any  other  like  act,  and  that  if  re- 
quired they  would  produce  their  own  necessaries.  He 
referred  to  himself  later  as  willing  to  retire  to  the  forests 
of  America  and  support  himself  by  the  labor  of  the 
chase  rather  than  submit  to  wrong. 

During  this  examination  he  brought  out  very  clearly 
that  the  colonies  had  their  own  parliaments,  i.  their 
assemblies,  and  that  the  King  was  their  sovereign  as  he 
was  of  the  people  and  Parliament  of  England. 

“We  are,”  he  said,  “free  subjects  of  the  King;  and 
fellow  subjects  of  one  part  of  his  dominions  are  not  sov- 
ereigns over  fellow  subjects  in  any  other  part.” 

Another  thing  that  he  brought  out;  that  he  was  es- 
pecially instructed  to  say  that  the  assemblies  would  be 


48 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


glad  to  vote  for  the  King’s  service  all  they  could  afford 
when  called  upon  in  the  constitutional  fashion.  He  was 
very  careful,  too,  to  show  how  the  feeling  in  America 
had  changed  since  1763.  His  answers  astonished  Eng- 
land and  thrilled  America. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  Franklin  had  a personal  regard 
for  King  George,  and  a remarkable  and  unfounded  faith 
in  his  purposes  toward  America.  He  kept  trying  to  in- 
fluence America  in  favor  of  the  King  while  denouncing 
Parliament.  His  old  affection  for  England  led  him  to 
look  kindly  upon  the  British  people.  It  was  Parliament 
that  he  denounced.  It  was  Parliament  that  was  up- 
setting the  British  Empire.  This  was  an  illogical  posi- 
tion, but  one  easily  explained  from  Franklin’s  previous 
history. 

He  soon  saw  his  mistake,  and  that  King  George  III 
was  behind  the  movement  to  subject  the  colonies,  and 
his  former  liking  turned  to  deep  personal  hatred. 
Friends  of  the  colonies  and  Parliament  tried  to  avoid 
serious  trouble  by  advocating  representation  of  the  col- 
onies in  Parliament.  Franklin,  of  course,  did  not  oppose 
such  a movement  which  in  theory  was  all  right,  but  he 
was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  it  would  never  work  in 
practice.  For  the  colonies  which  had  very  much  de- 
sired this  once  were  indifferent  now,  and  soon  would  take 
the  stand  of  absolutely  declining  any  such  union.  Yet 
as  advantageous  as  it  would  be  to  England,  that  nation 
was  too  proud  to  seek  union  with  the  despised  colonies. 

He  also  brought  out  clearly  his  ideas  as  to  internal  and 
external  taxation  and  how  the  first  could  not  be  evaded 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  49 

and  was  unjust  if  forced  upon  a people  by  others  than 
their  own  representatives.  He  felt  himself  bound  to  say 
that  a duty  on  the  importation  of  goods  was  just  because 
it  went  to  maintain  a fleet  and  protect  commerce. 

He  showed  also  how  willing  the  colonies  were  to  bear 
their  share  of  public  burdens  and  how  it  would  take 
twenty  years  to  recover  from  the  burden  of  debt  on  ac- 
count of  the  old  French  war. 

He  pointed  to  their  actions  during  the  late  war  as 
conclusive  proof.  Not  only  that,  but  he  stated  that  in 
the  case  of  an  European  war,  the  colonies  would  help 
England  to  the  best  of  their  ability. 

Early  in  1766  Parliament,  under  heavy  pressure, 
passed  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  on  March  18th 
the  King  was  induced  to  sign  it. 

It  was  a day  of  rejoicing  not  only  to  English  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  but  to  all  the  colonies  as  well. 
They  seemed  to  forget  that  Parliament  had  not  given 
up  the  right  to  lay  such  taxes,  but  had  passed  with  the 
repeal  an  act  declaring  in  vigorous  terms  such  authority. 

Franklin  of  course  was  now  a great  man  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people  of  Philadelphia  who  thought  the  repeal 
was  due  to  his  efforts.  They  forgot  their  wrath  which 
so  lately  burned  against  their  agent  for  his  early  mistake 
as  to  their  temper  toward  the  Stamp  Act. 

In  all  his  earnest  endeavors  to  protect  the  colonies,  he 
could  not  help  perpetrating  his  jokes  at  the  expense  of 
the  impenetrable  British  egotism  and  ignorance  of  Amer- 
ica. 

Many  absurd  stories  were  afloat  as  to  America  which 


5o 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


were  easily  swallowed  by  the  Britons.  One  was  that 
American  sheep  had  almost  no  wool.  He  answered  this 
by  the  statement  that  the  very  tails  of  the  American 
sheep  were  so  laden  with  wool  that  they  had  to  have  a 
little  wagon  on  four  wheels  to  support  it.  Such  extrav- 
agances they  received  with  open-mouthed  amazement. 

He  turned  the  tables  on  them  by  writing,  secretly,  an 
article  for  the  newspapers  to  the  effect  that  the  King  of 
Prussia  claimed  England  as  his  province,  and  asserted 
the  right  of  taxation  there,  using  the  same  arguments  as 
the  English  used  in  regard  to  the  colonies. 

Yet  he  could  arouse  no  interest  in  American  affairs. 
People  were  densely  ignorant  and  wished  to  remain  so. 
Nothing  could  arouse  them  to  learn  the  facts  about  the 
colonies.  In  France  it  was  very  different.  France, 
through  her  consulate,  kept  up  communication  with 
Franklin.  His  papers  were  translated  into  French,  and 
all  information  in  regard  to  America  was  eagerly  sought. 

Franklin  had  long  desired  to  return  home,  and  was 
preparing  to  do  so  when  news  came  of  his  appointment 
by  Georgia  and  New  Jersey  as  their  colonial  agent.  He 
seems  to  have  owed  his  appointment  by  Georgia  to 
Whitefield,  who  still  had  great  influence  there,  and 
whose  warm  regard  for  Franklin  never  ceased. 

On  the  other  hand, he  was  appointed  to  the  same  office 
by  Massachusetts  only  after  a bitter  fight  on  him  by 
Samuel  Adams,  who  did  not  seem  to  appreciate  Frank- 
lin. 

Arthur  Lee,  of  Virginia,  the  candidate  of  Adams,  was 
elected  substitute  in  case  of  Franklin’s  absence  from 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  51 

London.  Meanwhile  the  reaction  after  the  repeal  was 
in  full  force,  and  the  English  newspapers  were  full  of 
attacks  on  the  colonies,  especially  after  their  vigorous 
protest  against 
the  new  taxes 
on  tea,  paint, 
etc., which  Eng- 
1 a n d thought 
so  innocent. 

All  these 
things  c o tn  - 
bined  to  keep 
Franklin  in 
England  for 
nearly  ten  years. 

He  still  held 
his  position  as 
postmaster-gen- 
eral in  the  col- 
onies,though  he 
felt  his  tenure 
of  office  to  be 
b y sufferance. 

. . Statue  of  Franklin,  in  front  of  City  Hall,  Boston. 

His  enemies 

made  use  of  his  continuance  in  office  for  the  basis  of  slan- 
derous rumors  that  he  was  being  thus  bribed  by  the  Brit  - 
ish government;  that  he  was  to  be  made  secretary  in  re- 
turn for  his  changing  his  views  on  colonial  questions. 
In  fact,  he  was  often  approached  through  offers  of  office. 
But  these  rumors  were  partly,  at  any  rate,  the  work  of  a 


52 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


traitorous  egotist — Arthur  Lee.  It  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  not  through 
any  liking  for  the  colonies,  nor  because  the  Parliament 
or  the  people  as  a whole  desired  it.  It  was  the  disturb- 
ance of  commerce  that  did  it. 

England  merely  admitted  that  she  had  erred  in  the 
method  of  asserting  her  rights,  but  not  in  regard  to  the 
rights  themselves.  It  was  a humiliating  thing,  indeed, 
that  the  greatest  nation  in  Europe  should  be  obliged  to 
back  down  in  its  first  attempt  to  deal  with  its  colonies 
in  the  matter  of  taxation.  The  only  saving  thing  about 
it  was  the  declaration  that  Parliament  could  tax  if  it 
wanted  to. 

France,  we  may  be  sure,  enjoyed  the  episode  hugely, 
and  looked  forward  with  delight  to  the  time  when  the 
colonies  should  break  away ; entirely.  It  would  be  a 
sweet  revenge,  in  one  sense,  for  the  loss  of  Canada. 

The  colonies,  like  a parcel  of  children,  as  soon  as  the 
Act  was  repealed,  seemed  to  consider  the  whole  incident 
closed  for  good.  Various  colonies  voted  statues  for  the 
King  and  Pitt,  and  portraits  of  Camden,  Barre  and  Con- 
way. In  their  minds  England  would  never  again  en- 
danger by  her  acts  the  good  will  of  the  colonies  toward 
the  mother  country. 

Franklin  set  himself  to  calming  the  colonies  on  the 
one  hand  and  educating  the  English  on  the  other,  so 
that  he  soon  found  himself  suspected  by  both — by  the 
colonies  as  too  much  of  an  Englishman;  by  England  as 
too  much  of  an  American. 

The  Rockingham  ministry  was  too  weak  to  stand  the 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  53 

shock  of  the  repeal,  and  went  to  pieces.  Pitt  formed  a 
new  one  with  Shelburne,  Camden  and  Conway,  all  of 
whom  were  favorable  to  America.  But  he  was  obliged 
to  take  in  Townshend  as  chancellor  of  the  exchequer. 
Townshend  was  the  arch-enemy  of  the  colonies,  the 
originator  of  the  offensive  scheme  of  colonial  taxation, 
the  reckless  scoffer  at  colonial  rights,  “the  incurable,” 
as  Pitt  called  him. 

While  Shelburne  had  charge  of  the  administration  of 
colonial  affairs,  and  acted  in  a perfectly  just  and  satisfac- 
tory manner  in  all  things  coming  within  his  functions, 
Townshend  had  the  management  of  taxation.  He  had 
the  initiative,  while  Shelburne  administered.  Not  only 
that,  he  had  the  backing  of  King  George  III,  who  urged 
him  on  in  his  warfare  against  the  colonies. 

Unfortunately  for  America,  Pitt  had  committed  the 
mistake  of  ceasing  to  be  a commoner  and  had  become 
the  Earl  of  Chatham,  and  while  he  rose  in  dignity  he 
fell  in  power.  He  soon  became  a wreck,  and  shut  him- 
self up  from  all  participation  in  public, business.  This 
left  Townshend  in  full  sway. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  distinction  drawn  by  Frank- 
lin, Pitt  and  the  colonies,  between  a direct  tax  and  com- 
mercial imposts,  which  latter  were  admitted  to  be  right, 
Townshend  brought  forward  a new  scheme  of  taxation. 
It  embodied  the  method  of  indirect  taxation  by  means  of 
imposts,  and  so  satisfactory  to  the  colonies  was  it  sup- 
posed to  be  that  it  passed  Parliament  without  opposi- 
tion of  consequence. 

Townshend  also  tried  to  punish  New  York  for  not 


54 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


obeying  the  act  as  to  quartering  British  soldiers  in  the 
colony.  This  created  bad  blood.  These  acts  showed 
clearly  the  determination  of  Parliament  to  raise  revenue 
from  America. 

Townshend’s  bill  had  provided  imposts  on  tea,  paint, 
paper,  glass  and  lead.  It  at  once  became  apparent  to 
John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania  that  the  stand  of  the 
colonies  in  favor  of  submitting  to  imposts  was  fraught 
with  grave  danger.  He  therefore  wrote  the  “Letters  of 
a Farmer,”  to  urge  .the  colonies  to  recede  from  their  po- 
sition, and  to  maintain  that  any  tax  of  whatever  kind 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  a revenue  was  a violation  of 
their  rights  as  British  subjects. 

Under  the  pressure  of  these  and  similar  papers  and  of 
the  trend  of  events,  the  colonies  advanced  to  this  posi- 
tion which  they  maintained  to  the  end  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war. 

When  Townshend’s  influence  was  most  in  the  ascen- 
dant, he  died  September,  1767.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Lord  North,  who  was  in  name  the  head  of  the  ministry 
while  the  King  himself  was  the  real  controller  of  the 
destinies  of  Britain. 

Shelburne  was  also  superceded  by  an  Irish  peer,  the 
Earl  of  Hillsborough.  At  first  Franklin  was  inclined  to 
like  the  new  secretary  for  the  colonies,  but  he  was  soon 
undeceived. 

The  Earl  tried  to  insist  that  Franklin  had  no  regular 
commission  as  an  agent  because  it  was  not  a bill  signed 
by  the  governor,  but  simply  a vote  of  the  Assembly. 
In  this  attempt  to  bluff  Franklin  he  condescended  to  use 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  55 

falsehood,  but  in  this  he  was  detected  by  Franklin,  who, 
at  the  end  of  the  stormy  interview,  left  the  Earl  pale 
with  anger  by  intimating  that  he  would  give  his  lord- 
ship  no  further  trouble  because  he  had  no  conception 
that  an  agent  could,  “at present , be  of.  any  use  to  any 
of  the  colonies.”  To  this  the  doughty  Irish  peer  took 
offense  and  continued  to  refuse  to  acknowledge  Franklin 
as  agent  of  Massachusetts. 

This  did  not  materially  affect  the  latter’s  position  or 
influence.  Papers  and  arguments  found  their  way 
through  his  hands  to  their  proper  place  and  were  as  ef- 
fective as  before.  But  Franklin  had  his  revenge  in  see- 
ing Hillsborough  soon  lose  his  position, because  of  his  du- 
plicity and  of  the  growing  dislike  of  the  King  which 
Franklin  took  care  to  augment. 

The  ministry,  desiring  to  propitiate  the  colonies  as  far 
as  possible  asked  Franklin  to  nominate  a successor  to 
Hillsborough  who  would  be  acceptable  to  America.  He 
suggested  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  who  was  friendly  to  the 
colonies. 

He  got  on  well  with  Dartmouth,  but  the  trouble  was 
that  both  the  colonies  and  Parliament  had  gone  too  far 
to  recede.  Each  had  taken  its  stand  upon  the  princi- 
ples it  meant  to  abide  by  and  the  pleasant  personal  re- 
lations between  Franklin  and  Dartmouth  did  not  matter. 

Then  in  1772  and  1773  came  up  the  wrangle  between 
Hutchinson,  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  Assem- 
bly over  the  same  old  question  about  colonial  taxation. 

That  made  matters  still  worse  for  it  embarrassed  the 
ministry  and  led  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  to  a res- 


56 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


olution  which  was  absolutely  repugnant  to  the  claimed 
powers  of  Parliament.  Franklin  and  Dartmouth  labored 
in  vain  to  undo  the  mischief  that  the  Stamp  Act  had 
begun. 

Franklin  longed  for  the  restoration  of  the  kindly  feel- 
ing and  the  state  of  affairs  before  that  awful  blunder 
was  made.  But  of  course  neither  he  nor  Dartmouth 
could  turn  back  the  hand  on  the  dial  of  time.  The  mis- 
chief had  been  done  and  nothing  could  now  undo  it. 
Yet  he  longed  for  peace  and  refused  to  believe  that  war 
would  come. 

He  counselled  moderation  at  home;  that  the  mob 
might  not  get  control;  but  that  leaders  of  ability  and 
patriotism  might  have  direction  of  affairs.  Especially 
he  recommended  the  non-importation  agreements  which 
produced  industry  and  frugality  in  the  colonies  and  ruin 
to  English  merchants.  They  would  act  as  a tariff  now 
acts,  but  without  the  tremendous  cost  that  a tariff  makes 
necessary,  and  he  seemed  to  be  about  to  accomplish  his 
purpose.  It  had  cost  vastly  more  to  collect  revenue  by 
the  Customs  Act  than  the  revenue  was  worth. 

The  East  Indian  Company  lost  enormously  by  the 
failure  of  the  colonists  to  purchase  tea,  while  at  the  same 
time  Dutch,  Danish,  Swedish  and  French  smugglers  up 
and  down  the  1500  miles  of  sea  coast  furnished  all  the 
beverage  which  the  thriving  Yankee  house-wives  wanted. 

Franklin,  while  in  England,  never  ceased  his  private 
studies,  and  large  social  intercourse  with  educated 
Englishmen.  With  him  lived  his  grandson,  William 
Temple  Franklin,  son  of  the  governor  of  New  Jersey. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


57 


The  lad  was  intelligent  and  comely  and  a great  solace  to 
his  grandfather  under  whose  eye  he  was  trained.  While 
the  father  in  New  Jersey  was  drifting  toward  the  position 
of  royalist,  the  son  was  imbibing  the  ideas  of  liberty. 
With  him  lived,  also,  Sally  Franklin,  a daughter  of  dis- 
tant English  relatives,  whom  he  adopted  and  educated 
and  saw  happily  married.  While  he  was  in  England  his 
favorite  daughter,  Sarah,  was  married  to  Mr.  Bache 
whom  Franklin  had  never  seen.  Their  son  was  the 
Benjamin  Franklin  Bache  so  famous  in  the  controversies 
of  Jefferson’s  day. 

Franklin  longed  for  home  as  much  as  Mrs.  Franklin 
fondly  longed  for  him,  but  they  were  never  to  see  each 
other  again  on  earth.  She  reminded  him  of  home,  how- 
ever, by  sending  Indian  meal,  cranberries,  apples,  hick- 
ory nuts  and  material  for  buckwheat  cakes,  which  he 
sometimes  divided  with  English  friends. 

He  was  still  engaged  in  helping  others.  He  assisted 
American  hospitals;  sent  the  books  for  a medical  library; 
sent  a telescope  to  Harvard  College  in  1769,  and  secured 
for  his  friend,  Rev.  Samuel  Cooper,  of  Boston,  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Edinburgh  University. 
His  philosophical  investigations  at  this  time  would  fill 
a volume. 

He  discovered  how  breathing  devitalizes  the  air;  sug- 
gested a method  to  ventilate  the  House  of  Commons; 
showed  that  fresh  air  does  not  produce  colds;  dis- 
cussed smoking  chimnies,  swimming,  metallic  roofs, 
spots  on  the  sun,  rainfall,  fire  proof  stairs,  the  torpedo, 
Armonica,  Northwest  Passage,  magnet,  improved  carri- 


58 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


age  wheels,  glass  blowing,  Prince  Rupert’s  drops,  Aurora 
Borealis,  inflammatory  gases,  the  effect  of  vegetation  upon 
air  and  water,  the  use  of  oil  to  calm  the  waves,  the  in- 
vention of  a stove  that  should  consume  its  own  smoke. 
He  discussed  questions  in  political  economy,  and  Adam 
Smith  seems  to  have  been  indebted  to  him  for  some 


parts  of  “The  Wealth 
of  Nations.” 

Franklin  had  many 
friends  in  England; 
some  of  them  have  al- 
ready been  mentioned. 
He  was  well  acquaint- 
ed with  Lord  Shel- 
burne, the  Marquis  of 
Rockingham,  Lord  Le 
Despense,  Lord  Bath- 
urst and  Lord  North. 
He  knew  George  II  and 


Gen.  Horatio  Gates.  ttttv/t  ht 

George  III,  Mrs.  Mon- 
tague, Garrick,  Benjamin  West  the  American  painter, 
Horatio  Gates  and  General  Charles  Lee,  Hawksworth, 
Stanley,  Dr.  Price,  Dr.  Priestley,  Dr.  Fothergill,  Dr. 
Shipley,  and  Sir  John  Pringle. 

He  saw  Handel  conduct  for  the  last  time  one  of  his 
own  works.  He  knew  intimately  Adam  Smith  and  Ed- 
mund Burke.  He  met  Goldsmith  and  had  known  Col- 
linson  since  his  first  visit  to  London  when  a youth. 

Franklin  found  a true  friend  in  Pringle  who  in  1772 
was  chosen  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  but  was 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


59 


forced  by  King  George  III  to  resign  for  a singular  reas- 
on. The  King  had  in  his  anger  against  Americans  ob- 
stinately set  his  mind  on  having  blunt  knobs  on  the 
lightning  rods  of  the  Palace  instead  of  sharp  points. 
Franklin  had  directed  sharp  points  for  better  protection. 
The  matter  became  a court  question.  All  concerned 
were  obliged  to  line  up  for  or  against  blunt  knobs  or 
sharp  points,  King  George  III  or  Franklin.  Because 
Pringle  sided  with  Franklin,  the  King  intimated  that  a 
man  who  did  not  know  any  more  than  to  favor  sharp 
conductors  was  not  fit  for  the  position  as  President  of  the 
Royal  Society. 

An  incident  about  this  time  added  fuel  to  the  flames. 
It  was  the  matter  of  the  Hutchinson  letters.  Franklin 
naturally  resented  (the  measures  taken  by  the  govern- 
ment to  over-awe  the  colonies  and  showed  his  resent- 
ment. He  was  informed  that  the  measures  were  those 
advised  by  Americans  and  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to 
America.  This  Franklin  refused  to  believe  until  he 
was  confronted  with  the  very  letters  advising  the  send- 
ing of  troops  to  Boston  and  other  measures.  They  were 
written  by  Thomas  Hutchinson  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts and  by  Eieutenant-Governor  Oliver. 

Franklin  seemed  to  think  that  if  leading  men  of  Mas- 
sachusetts could  know  that  the  action  of  the  English 
government  had  been  by  instigation  of  men  in  their  own 
colony  in  high  position,  it  might  mitigate  the  bad  feel- 
ing on  their  part  toward  Great  Britain  and  tend  to  a set- 
tlement of  matters. 

Whether  Franklin  was  entirely  sincere  in  this  or  not 


6o 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


may  be  a question,  but  his  conscience  seems  to  have 
been  entirely  devoid  of  offense.  At  any  rate,  on  this 
understanding  he  obtained  the  letters  on  a pledge  that 
they  should  be  given  into  the  hands  of  a select  few  only 
and  should  not  be  printed  or  copied.  He  agreed  and 
sent  the  letters  to  Massachusetts  strictly  requiring  his 
correspondents  to  observe  the  conditions  set  out. 

In  all  this  Dr.  Franklin’s  judgment  was  at  fault,  for 
in  this  case,  as  is  almost  sure  to  happen,  some  one  re- 
fused, in  a matter  of  such  great  importance,  to  be  bound. 
By  a trick  the  documents  found  their  way  into  the  hands 
of  the  Assembly  and  were  printed.  Their  publication 
produced  a sensation.  There  were  charges  and  counter- 
charges. Hutchinson  and  Oliver  were  furious;  so  was 
the  Assembly  and  petitioned  the  King  for  the  removal 
of  the  governor  and  his  lieutenant.  This  petition  was 
sent  to  Franklin  and  by  him  presented. 

Meantime  the  friends  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  and 
the  enemies  of  the  colonies  were  trying  to  discover  how 
these  letters  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Assembly,  and 
over  the  dispute  as  to  the  matter  two  men  fought  a bloody 
duel. 

Franklin,  at  the  time,  was  absent  from  London  and 
on  his  return  heard  of  the  affair  and  hastened  to  prevent 
a renewal  of  the  duel  by  publishing  a letter  to  the  effect 
that  he  sent  the  documents  to  Massachusetts.  This 
brought  the  wrath  of  the  English  government  down  on 
Franklin  because  by  this  time  the  matter  had  become  of 
political  importance.  He  was  cited  to  appear  before  the 
Lords  of  the  Committee  for  Plantation  Affairs  on  the 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  61 

* ' 1 

matter  of  the  petition,  and  was  there  grievously  insulted. 
It  was  rumored  that  he  was  to  be  arrested  and  sent  to 
Newgate  and  the  result  of  the  petition  was  decided  be- 
forehand. The  Lords  in  their  decision  censured  him 
and  went  out  of  their  way  to  insult  him. 

This  judicial  censure  put  an  end  to  his  prestige  and 
his  ability  to  be  of  service  as  Agent  of  the  colonies.  He 
was  looked  upon  in  England  as  the  fomenter  of  trouble 
and  even  Massachusetts  found  fault  with  him  for  alleged 
laxness.  His  liberty  if  not  his  life  seemed  to  be  in  dan- 
ger. He  was  threatened  with  prosecution  for  treason 
and  yet  he  refused  to  leave  England.  He  visited  Lord 
Chatham  and  was  well  received  and  warmly  defended 
by  him  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

One  of  the  last  pieces  of  business  he  was  engaged  in 
was  one  in  which  he  was  secretly  “approached”  by  per- 
sons connected  with  Lord  Howe  and  Lord  North.  In 
the  course  of  this  the  formal  attempt  was  made  to  bribe 
Franklin  but  without  success.  In  fact,  these  attempts 
had  been  very  numerous.  The  political  morals  of  Eng- 
land were  then  so  low,  and  statesmen  were  so  accustomed 
to  bribing  and  being  bribed  that  they  could  not  conceive 
of  any  one  rejecting  such  offers  as  were  made  to  Frank- 
lin. 

He  still  suffered  from  the  venomous  slanders  of  Arthur 
Lee.  He,  however,  placed  his  agencies  in  Lee’s  hands 
and  spent  one  last  day  with  his  tried  friend,  Dr.  Priest- 
ley, who  never  deserted  him. 

Franklin  experienced  profound  feeling  in  leaving  Eng- 
land. It  meant  the  impossibility  to  peaceably  settle  the 


62 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


troubles  between  England  and  her  colonies.  To  avoid 
arrest,  he  went  to  Portsmouth  as  secretly  as  possible  and 
arrived  in  Philadelphia  May  5,  1775.  In  the  meantime 
his  faithful  wife,  with  whom  he  had  lived  so  long,  had 
passed  away. 

Americans  of  the  present  day  scarcely  ever  appreciate 
the  fact  that  Franklin  performed  his  greatest  services  for 
his  country  when  he  was  an  old  man;  when  he  had 
passed  beyond  the  age  to  which  very  few  attain,  an  age 
when  those  that  reach  it  are  beginning  to  be  feeble  in 
body  and  torpid  in  mind. 

When  Franklin  returned  from  England  he  was  sixty- 
nine  years  old;  older  than  Washington  when  he  died. 

When  he  landed,  the  battles  of  Lexington  and  Con- 
cord had  already  been  fought.  The  colonies  needed  the 
services  of  every  man,  but  especially  of  a man  whose 
character  and  abilities  were  so  transcendent.  Therefore 
instead  of  coming  home  to  spend  his  old  age  in  peace 
and  quiet,  Franklin  was  called  upon  to  perform  services 
that  were  so  harassing  and  difficult  that  they  would  have 
taxed  the  energies  of  a far  younger  man. 

The  breach  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 
country,  of  course,  brought  a breach  between  him  and 
his  English  friends.  It  would  not  do  at  this  point  to 
omit  the  very  famous  letter  to  Mr.  Strahan,  his  friend 
for  many  years.  It  was  dated  July  5th,  1775: — 

“Mr.  Strahan: 

You  are  a Member  of  Parliament,  and  one  of  that  Majority  which 
has  doomed  my  Country  to  Destruction.  You  have  begun  to  burn 
our  Towns,  and  murder  our  People — Look  upon  your  hands! — They 
are  stained  with  the  Blood  of  your  Relations! — You  and  I were  long 


z_ 


2 


XT’  . 


ce^o&Tt 


<)^^C*Zyr^xr  - 


s~L^y,  i^yi^y  ,^/s 

2-c*~  . kJ^  , 


Styy-us-  SSi  -f' 


£cs-e^y-cJ 


gj~ 


Reduced  Fac-Simile  of  Franklin’s  Famous  Letter  to  Mr.  Strahan. 


64  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

Friends: — You  are  now  my  Enemy, — and  I am,  Yours, 

B.  Franklin.” 

This  breach  between  old  friends  was,  however,  healed 
in  after  years  and  they  became  enemies  no  longer. 

In  quite,  a different  strain  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Priestley, 
for  whom  he  had  a deep  affection,  but  his  letters  show 
profound  feeling  against  England.  He  bade  him  tell 
his  friends  in  England  that  they  need  have  no  doubts  as 
to  America’s  firmness. 

“Britain”  he  said,  “at  the  expense  of  three  millions, 
has  killed  one  hundred  and  fifty  Yankees  this  campaign, 
which  is  twenty  thousand  pounds  a head; — during  the 
same  time  sixty  thousand  children  have  been  born  in 
America.” 

He  then  bids  them  “calculate  the  time  and  expense 
necessary  to  kill  us  all,  and  conquer  our  whole  territory.” 

He  had  hardly  landed  in  May  before  he  was  elected 
delegate  to  the  Second  Continental  Congress.  He  was 
especially  active  on  committees  and  was  instrumental  in 
organizing  the  army,  navy  and  the  finances  of  the  new 
government. 

He  was  especially  instrumental  in  outlining  the  na- 
tional policy  of  the  government.  His  calm  tempera* 
ment  and  sound  judgment  made  him  just  the  person  to 
harmonize  conflicting  interests.  He  equalized  and  uni- 
fied action.  He  restrained  the  over  zealous,  and  spurred 
on  the  slow  footed. 

To  the  contention  that  America  was  unfillial  in  her 
rebellion,  he  retorted  that  Britain  had  never  accorded 
any  advantage  to  Saxony,  her  mother  country,  but  had 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  65 

subsidized  the  King  of  Prussia  to  invade  that  mother 
country.  In  all  this  he  had  to  have  his  joke,  and  Parton 
in  his  “Life  of  Franklin”  conjectures  that  the  reason 
why  he  was  not  called  upon  to  write  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  that  he  would  have  put  a joke  in  it. 

“His  jokes,  the  circulating  medium  of  Congress,  were 
as  helpful  to  the  cause  as  Jay’s  conscience,  or  Adams 
fire; — but  they  were  out  of  place  in  formal,  exact,  and 
authoritative  papers.  ’ ’ 

Having  once  tried  his  hand  on  the  plan  of  union  of 
1754,  he  drew  up  a plan  of  union  for  the  colonies  which 
he  presented  July  21,  1775,  which  is  called  the  “First 
Sketch  of  a Plan  of  Confederation  which  is  known  to  have 
been  presented  to  Congress.”  It  is  of  interest  to  notice 
that  it  provided  for  the  admission  to  the  confederation, 
on  application,  of  Ireland,  West  Indies  Islands,  Canada, 
and  Florida. 

Not  only  did  he  have  to  serve  in  Congress,  but  he  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  postal  service,  and  made  chairman 
of  the  provincial  committee  of  safety  to  organize  Penn- 
sylvania for  war. 

He  tells  Dr.  Priestley  in  a letter  that  he  began  his 
daily  work  at  six  o’clock  in  the  morning  by  attendance 
upon  this  committee. 

He  also  “devised  and  constructed”  marine  Chevaux 
de  frise  to  protect  the  Delaware  river. 

In  October,  1775,  he  was  elected  a member  of  the  As- 
sembly of  Pennsylvania,  but  as  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  King  was  still  required  he  refused  to  take  it  and  re- 
signed his  place. 


66  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

In  September,  as  one  of  a committee  for  Congress,  he 
had  gone  to  Boston  to  confer  with  Washington  and  to 
view  the  condition  of  the  war. 

It  took  thirteen  days  to  go  on  horseback  from  Phila- 


Meeting  of  Washington  and  the  Commissioners— Franklin,  Benjamin  Harrison 
and  Thomas  Lynch,  Cambridge.  October,  1775. 

From  Holley’s  “Life  of  Franklin.” 

delphia  to  Boston.  There  he,  of  course,  met  the  great 
leaders  of  the  Revolution  who  looked  upon  him  with 
the  greatest  admiration.  As  if  all  these  services  were 
not  enough  to  put  upon  an  old  man  of  seventy  years, 
Congress  was  selfish  enough  to  send  him  to  Canada  to 
confer  with  Arnold  about  the  attitude  of  Canada.  It 
was  early  in  the  year  and  the  ice  still  made  progress  in 
the  lakes  and  rivers  impossible.  Upon  reaching  Sarato- 
ga he  realized  the  task  he  had  undertaken  and  sat  down 


Carpenter’s  Hall,  Philadelphia,  where  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress met  on  September  5,  1774. 


68 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


to  say  a last  word  to  his  friends  whom  he  never  expected 
to  see  again.  Writing  to  Josiah  Quincy  he  said: 

“I  begin  to  apprehend  that  I have  undertaken  a fa- 
tigue that  at  my  time  of  life  may  prove  too  much  for  me; 

so  I sit  down 
to  write  to  a 
few  friends 
by  w a y of 
farewell.  ’ ’ 

He  lived  to 
reach  Cana- 
da, but  the 
state  of  his 
health  com- 
pelled a quick 
return  witli- 
out  accom- 
plishing any- 
thing. Upon 
recommenda- 
tion of  Con- 
gress, the  dif- 
ferent states 
set  about 

erecting  new,  independent  governments,  and  of  course 
Franklin  was  called  upon  for  assistance  and  advice  in 
regard  to  Pennsylvania’s  constitution.  He  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  constitutional  convention  and  presided 
over  its  meetings.  The  new  constitution  called  for  a 
legislature  of  one  house,  Pennsylvania  being  one  of  only 


Interior,  Carpenter’s  Hall. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  69 


two  states  having  but  one  house.  Franklin  seems  to 
have  always  opposed  bi-cameral  legislatures. 

Even  in  the  spring  of  1776,  many  leaders  were  op- 
posed to  permanent  independence,  but  Franklin  could 
see  no  probability  of  a return  to  the  old  order  of  things, 
and  when  Samuel  Adams  threatened  to  form  a New 
England  c o 11- 
federacy, Frank- 
lin offered  to 
join  it. 

But  he  did  not 
need  to  join  a 
New  England 
confederacy  to 
declare  his  in- 
dependence of 
England,  for  it 
was  only  a short 
time  until  he 
was  on  a com- 
mittee appoint- 
ed by  Congress 

Franklin  Signing  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

to  draft  a Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  During  the  debate  on  the 
Declaration  he  amused  Jefferson  with  stories,,  and  when 
the  immortal  document  was  about  to  be  signed,  gave 
utterance  to  that  grim  joke  which  is  world  famous: 

“ Yes,  we  must  indeed  all  hang  together,  or  assuredly 
we  shall  all  hang  separately.” 

When  it  came  to  establishing  a working  government 


7° 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


and  to  forming  a constitution,  Franklin  had  great  influ- 
ence. He  made  a draft  of  Articles  of  Confederation, 
which  his  experience  in  the  convention  of  1754  had 
fitted  him  to  do. 

When  the  struggle  arose  between  the  large  and  small 
states  and  their  proportion  of  power,  he  was  in  favor  of 
the  larger  states,  for  we  must  remember  that  Pennsylva- 
nia was  then,  as  now,  the  second  state  in  the  union  in 
population.  He  wanted  the  voting  according  to  popula- 
tion, and  did  not  regard  the  danger  of  the  large  states 
swallowing  up  the  smaller  as  worthy  of  consideration. 

In  his  humorous  way  he  illustrated  it  by  Scotland 
and  England.  He  explained  that  it  was  said  when 
Scotland  was  united  to  England  that  the  whale  had 
swallowed  Jonah,  but  when  Lord  Bute  came  into  power 
it  was  seen  that  Jonah  had  swallowed  the  whale. 

Lord  Howe  was  especially  acceptable  to  Americans, 
and  was  for  this  reason  sent  to  America  in  July,  1776, 
to  affect  a reconciliation.  He  communicated  with 
Franklin  whom  he  had  known  in  England.  Franklin 
answered  by  authority  of  Congress  in  a firm  and  rather 
aggressive  letter  giving  Lord  Howe  the  reasons  why  no 
reconciliation  could  be  effected  upon  any  other  basis  than 
independence. 

Lord  Howe  took  this  aggressive  letter  in  good  part 
for  he  seems  to  have  had  a genuine  liking  for  Franklin, 
and  after  the  battle  of  Long  Island  tried  again  by  parol- 
ling  General  Sullivan  and  sending  him  with  a message 
to  Congress  proposing  an  accommodation.  Franklin, 
John  Adams  and  Edward  Rutledge  were  sent  to  meet 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  71 

him,  but  the  conference  amounted  to  nothing  for  his 
Lordship  was  told  by  all  three  that  the  colonies  could 
not  return  to  the  domination  of  Great  Britain.  Such 
was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  Franklin  was  elected 
in  September,  1776,  envoy  to  France. 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  Franklin  was  chosen  for  this  im- 
portant work.  Besides  his  unrivalled  judgment  and  tact, 
he  was  the  only  American  who  had  had  anything  ap- 
proaching diplomatic  experience.  Diplomats  of  that  day 
and  of  a few  rebellious  colonies  had  naturally  a very  dif- 
ficult position.  Europeans  were  in  no  hurry  to  ac- 
knowledge the  independence  of  rebellious  peoples  even 
though  they  desired  to  strike  a blow  at  England.  For 
monarchs  to  do  that  looked  like  encouraging  attempts  at 
liberty  at  home. 

It  was  evident  to  all  that  the  colonies  could  hope  for 
the  most  from  France  of  all  the  European  nations.  Her 
statesmen  had  foreseen  this  struggle  for  independence, 
and  had  expected  that  thus  England  would  be  repaid  for 
the  taking  of  Canada. 

Silas  Deane  had  already  been  sent  to  France,  even  be- 
fore the  colonies  had  declared  themselves  independent, 
and  Arthur  Lee,  then  in  London,  had  been  directed  to 
ascertain  the  disposition  of  the  European  powers. 

Morse,  in  his  “Life  of  Franklin,”  says  of  Deane:  “He 
was  the  true  Yankee  jack-at-all-trades;  he  had  been 
graduated  at  Yale  College,  then  taught  school,  then 
practiced  law,  then  engaged  in  trade — had  been  elected 
to  the  first  and  second  Congresses  - and  was  now  with- 
out employment.” 


72 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


He  could  not  speak  French,  and  had  had  no  adequate 
training  whatever,  and  soon  got  so  involved  that  he  was 
recalled  practically  in  disgrace,  having  partly  lost  his 
reputation  for  financial  honesty.  He  was,  no  doubt, 
hardly  used  and  suffering  unjustly,  but  being  unwilling 
to  await  the  vindication  of  history,  he  became,  like  Ar- 
nold, embittered,  lost  his  head, 
turned  renegade  to  his  country, 
and  died  in  exile  broken  down 
and  unreconciled. 

Deane  reached  France  in  June* 
1 776,  with  some  letters  of  intro- 
duction from  Franklin.  He  had 
a little  money,  and  was  to  be  fur- 
nished more  by  sending  to  him 
cargoes  of  American  products  like 

Count  de  Vergennes.  • , 1 , 

rice,  tobacco,  etc. 

His  first  business  was  to  sound  Vergennes,  the  French 
minister,  as  to  what  help  the  colonies  could  expect,  and 
was  further  to  ask  for  military  supplies  and  equipment 
for  25,000  men,  with  200  pieces  of  field  artillery.  Of 
course  the  colonies  had  no  money  with  which  to  pay  for 
the  things  needed,  and  so  offered  to  pay  in  promises. 

Deane  found  Vergennes  on  the  whole  favorable  to  the 
colonies,  as  were  other  members  of  the  French  Cabinet, 
and  these  overcame  the  scruples  of  Louis  XVI,  who 
seems  not  to  have  understood  the  significance  of  the 
movement  he  was  about  to  assist. 

While  Deane  was  to  conduct  his  mission  in  secrecy, as 
a merchant  writing  under  the  name  of  Timothy  Jones, 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


73 


and  adding  to  his  commercial  letters  dispatches  in  invis- 
ible ink,  he  had  too  much  of  the  failing  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Yankee  to  keep  still.  He  indiscreetly  told  every- 
thing he  knew  to  Dr.  Edward  Bancroft,  an  American 
whom  Congress  had  hired  as  a spy.  Bancroft  was  a 
traitor,  and  communicated  his  information  to  the  British 
ministry. 

Before  Deane  arrived  in  France,  Beaumarchais,  “one 
of  the  most  extraordinary  characters  in  history,”  had, 
while  in  England,  imbibed  the  notion  from  Arthur  Lee 
that  the  colonies  were  invincible,  and  had  begun  opera- 
tions in  France  in  their  behalf.  He  was  greatly  in  favor 
with  the  young  King,  and  his  enthusiasm  infected  even 
the  King. 

Vergennes  sided  with  Beaumarchais,  and  declared 
that  now  was  the  time  to  reduce  England  to  a second 
class  power.  He  wanted  the  rebellion  to  last  at  least 
one  year,  so  that  the  colonies  would  suffer  so  much  as  to 
thoroughly  hate  England.  He  favored  keeping  nomi- 
nally a friendly  attitude  toward  England  while  secretly 
assisting  the  Americans. 

Turgot  argued  differently,  and  opposed  this  scheme 
and  won  the  King  to  his  side,  but  Vergennes  was  the 
coming  man  in  France  and  controlled  the  policy  of  the 
realm.  He  and  Beaumarchais  thereupon  concocted  a 
remarkable  scheme  to  secretly  help  the  colonies. 

The  firm  of  Roderique  Hortalez  & Co.  was  established 
in  Paris,  and  Beaumarchais  was  made  manager.  The 
capital,  $600,000  in  all,  was  secretly  furnished  by  the 
French  and  Spanish  governments.  Beaumarchais  was 


74 


- BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


to  act  simply  as  a merchant  “at  his  own  risk  and  peril.'’ 
He  was  to  use  his  capital  to  purchase  military  supplies 
for  the  colonies,  which,  however,  would  be  sold  from  the 
French  arsenals.  But  he  was  obliged  to  pay  for  them, 
and  when  he  sold  them  to  the  colonies  he  was  to  get  his 
return  in  American  products. 

Deane  arrived  just  then,  heard  what  was  doing,  told 
it  all  to  Bancroft,  Bancroft  to  the  British  government, 
and  British  cruisers  shut  up  the  ships  of  Hortalez  & Co. 
in  French  harbors. 

The  British  government  vehemently  complained; 
Vergennes  was  obliged  to  issue  strict  instructions  against 
unlawful  trade  and  Beaumarchais,  reduced  with  a ven- 
geance to  the  level  of  a real  merchant,  had  to  get  his 
goods  out  and  in  as  best  he  could.  He  had  no  favorit- 
ism shown  him  by  the  government,  and  consequently  it 
was  a long  time  before  he  got  any  supplies  to  America. 
He,  also,  could  not  get  American  products  in,  and  was 
near  bankruptcy.  But  Franklin  arrived  late  in  1776, 
and  things  began  to  look  brighter. 

Congress  had  in  the  early  autumn  decided  to  send  a 
regular  embassy  to  France,  and  elected  Franklin,  Jeffer- 
son and  Deane  (who  was  already  there),  to  represent  the 
colonies  in  France.  Jefferson  declined  and  Arthur  Lee 
was  substituted. 

Franklin  ran  great  risks  in  going  to  France,  as  he  had 
to  go  in  a sloop  of  war  of  only  sixteen  guns,  which  was 
several  times  chased  by  British  frigates.  Soon  after 
landing  he  wrote  to  one  who  playfully  called  him  a 
rebel,  that  she  must  wait  the  outcome  to  see  whether 


Franklin’s  Reception  at  the  Court  of  France. 


76 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


it  was  a rebellion  or  a revolution.  His  appearance  in 
Paris  caused  a furore,  and  Lord  Rockingham  said  that 
Franklin’s  presence  more  than  offset  the  victory  of  the 
English  at  Long  Island.  They  looked  upon  him  as  a 
sage,  an  ideal  of  republican  simplicity,  compared  with 
immortal  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Strange,  indeed,  to  the  gay  Parisians  must  have 
seemed  his  appearance  with  his  spectacles  and  cap  of 
fur,  his  brown  Quaker  clothes  of  colonial  cut,  his  head 
devoid  of  a wig. 

He  seemed  to  enjoy  a reputation,  according  to  John 
Adams,  greater  than  either  Leibnitz,  Newton,  Frederick 
or  Voltaire.  In  order  not  to  embarrass  the  government, 
he  established  himself  in  the  retired  suburb  of  Passy. 
He  lived  plainly  but  comfortably,  although  he  was  ac- 
cused by  John  Adams  of  extravagance. 

On  December  23,  1776,  the  American  envoys  wrote  to 
Vergennes  and  requested  an  audience.  The'y  were 
granted  one  the  28th.  They  asked  for  a treaty  of  com- 
merce and  alliance,  and  the  loan  of  eight  ships  of  the 
line  to  enable  them  to  get  American  ships,  then  block- 
aded in  America  by  English  vessels,  out  of  port  and  off 
to  France.  This  was  refused,  but  they  were  offered  a 
strictly  secret  loan  of  $400,000,  to  be  paid  after  the  war 
without  interest. 

Franklin  did  not  have  any  practical  connection  with 
what  was  going  on  between  Beaumarchais  and  Deane, 
and  even  Deane  did  not  know  the  connection  between 
Beaumarchais  and  the  French  government.  That  did 
not  come  out  for  fifty  years. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


77 


As  it  happened,  Arthur  Lee  was  an  implacable  enemy 
of  Silas  Deane,  and,  Morse  says,  “resembled  the  devil  in 
at  least  one  particular,  in-as-much  as  he  was  the  foe  of  all 
mankind.”  Beaumarchais  early  had  taken  a dislike  to 
Lee,  and  made  use  of  Deane  in  Lee’s  place.  This  an- 
gered Lee,  who  wrote  letters  to  Congress  not  to  send 
ships  consigned  to  Beaumarchais,  for  the  reason  that 
they  only  went  to  fill  the  pockets  of  Deane  and.  Beau- 
marchais. He  had  not  a particle  of  evidence  and  there 
was  no  truth  in  the  libel,  but  Congress  was  bewildered 
by  contradictory  letters  from  Beaumarchais,  Deane  and 
Lee,  and  refused  to  send  the  ships,  and  recalled  Deane. 

Deane  tried  repeatedly  to  get  his  reputation  cleared 
from  these  libels  of  Lee,  but  failed  because  he  could  not, 
of  course,  produce  the  evidence  existing  in  France. 
Franklin  believed  him  innocent,  and  Deane  insisted 
that  Congress  owed  him  $60,000,  which  he  could  not  re- 
cover. In  1835,  however,  Congress  paid  to  Deane’s 
heirs  a part  of  the  sum  due  him. 

The  real  cause  of  Deane’s  recall  seems  to  have  been 
the  following:  Large  numbers  of  French  officers,  espec- 
ially, sought  service  in  the  American  armies.  They 
were  in  most  part  adventurers.  But  Deane  was  dazzled 
by  their  over-estimation  of  the  invaluable  assistance 
they  could  render  the  cause,  and  sent  over  great  num- 
bers of  them.  These,  after  they  had  harassed  Washing- 
ton nearly  to  death,  had  to  be  shipped  back  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Congress  with  some  salve,  in  the  way  of  tips,  to 
their  wounded  feelings.  Of  course  when  they  got  back 
they  were  enemies  of  America. 


78 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


Franklin  appreciated  the  difficulties  of  Deane’s  posi- 
tion, he  being  unacquainted  with  the  language,  and 
spoke  a good  word  for  Deane  to  Congress,  saying  that 
he  “daily  proves  himself  to  my  certain  knowledge,  an 
able,  faithful,  active  and  extremely  useful  servant  of  the 
public,  etc.” 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  Deane  is  the 
one  who  did  such  signal  service 
to  the  colonies  by  commissioning 
Lafayette,  Steuben  and  DeKalb. 
Franklin  had  the  same  trouble. 
He  wrote: 

“Great  officers  of  all  ranks,  in 
all  departments,  ladies  great  and 
small,  ....  worry  me  from  morn- 
ing to  night.  The  noise  of  every 
coach  now  that  enters  my  court 
Baron  BoKaib.  terrifies  me  ’ ’ 

But  he  had  the  firmness  to  bluntly  refuse  these  that 
importuned  him,  and  so  wrote  to  Washington.  He  drew 
up  a “Model  of  a Letter  of  Recommendation  of  a person 
you  are  Unacquainted  with,”  that  was  a stinging  rebuke 
to  place-hunters.  Yet  he  recommended  good  men  like 
Lafayette  and  Steuben  with  letters  of  real  value. 

In  one  way  England  was  at  a great  disadvantage  in 
the  war.  She  had  an  enormous  commerce,  and  the  col- 
onies early  turned  toward  privateering  as  a means  of 
harassing  their  enemy. 

One  of  the  first  to  see  the  advantage  of  such  a course 
was  Franklin  in  France,  who  early  began  arrangements 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  79 

to  make  France  the  center  of  cruising  in  English  waters. 
It  must,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind  that  privateering 
was  then  regarded  in  a much  more  favorable  light  than 
now.  Under  his  direction  and  by  his  aid  Conyngham 
and  Wickes,  and  other  gallant  but  reckless  men  fairly 
took  Englishmen’s  breath  away  by  their  boldness  and 
success.  They  took  hosts  of  prizes  and  prisoners,  and 
in  London  insurance  ran  up  to  a premium  of  sixty  per 
cent,  and  even  on  boats  plying  between  Dover  and 
Calais,  to  ten  per  cent. 

Franklin  was  the  center  of  this.  He  issued  instruct- 
ions and  commissions,  gave  orders  and  suggestions, 
paid  bills,  purchased  ships;  in  fact,  “he  was  the  only 
American  government  which  these  independent  sailors 
knew.” 

But  this  issuing  from  a neutral  port  to  capture  ves- 
sels, only  to  bring  them  back  to  port  to  condemn  and 
sell  as  prizes,  was  contrary  to  international  law~,  and  at 
once  brought  the  French  government  into  trouble  with 
England. 

Vergennes  wanted  to  avoid  war  with  England  if  possi- 
ble, and  increased  the  strictness  of  his  instructions  as  to 
neutral  ports.  This  made  the  American  officers  angry, 
without  reason  it  must  be  said.  Their  boundless  assur- 
ance was  something  remarkable,  and  Franklin  had  to 
spend  considerable  time  in  keeping  the  peace.  He  very 
adroitly  did  this  by  correspondence  and  argument,  re- 
quests and  correcting  mistakes,  which  all  meant  delay, 
while  the  American  captains  meantime  were  playing 
havoc  with  English  commerce.  This  was  possible,  be- 


8o 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


cause  Franklin  well  knew  that  secretly  the  French  were 
favoring  the  Americans  in  the  privateering. 

But  numerous  captures  brought  another  trouble. 
Prisoners  got  so  numerous  that  Franklin  did  not  know 
what  to  do  with  them.  He,  of  course,  had  no  place  for 
them  in  France,  nor  could  he  send  them  to  America. 

Meantime  the  American  prisoners  in  England  were 
very  badly  used.  He  then  tried  to  effect,  through  his 
old  friend  David  Hartley,  who  was  in  Parliament  and 
stood  well  with  Ford  North,  to  arrange  a general  scheme 
of  exchange  of  prisoners.  Hartley  worked  hard  to  this 
end,  but  to  no  purpose. 

Franklin  sent  regularly  money  to  England  to  better 
the  condition  of  American  prisoners  there,  but  it  was 
mostly  embezzled  by  his  agent. 

At  last  Franklin  had  to  release  his  British  prisoners 
for  want  of  means  and  a place  to  keep  them. 

Franklin’s  vexations  were  numberless,  and  a man  not 
well  poised  would  have  succumbed  to  them  and  re- 
signed. Thomas  Morris,  commercial  agent  for  the  col- 
onies at  Nantes,  turned  out  to  be  a drunkard  and  a ras- 
cal. Franklin  found  it  necessary  to  employ  another,  his 
own  nephew,  to  take  part  of  Morris’s  duties.  This  an- 
gered Robert  Morris,  brother  of  Thomas;  but  he  after- 
ward retracted  his  harsh  words  of  resentment  on  being 
presented  with  indisputable  evidence  of  his  brother’s 
wrong  doing. 

Arthur  Lee  now,  also,  had  to  vent  his  venomous  ha- 
tred on  Franklin  and  his  nephew,  which  latter  individ- 
ual did  his  work  well  and  honestly.  Lee  accused  him 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  81 

of  being  implicated  with  Deane  in  stealing  money  in  the 
way  of  prizes.  He  even  got  the  ear  of  John  Adams,  on 
his  arrival  to  take  Deane’s  place,  and  in  an  insulting 
manner  compelled  Franklin  to  discharge  his  nephew. 

The  year  1 777 
was  a trying 
year  even  to  the 
sanguine  Dr. 

Franklin.  It  was 
the  year  of  the 
retreat  across 
New  Jersey,  of 
Valley  Forge, 
of  Howe’s  cap- 
ture of  Philadel- 
phia, and  Bur- 
go  y n e ’ s ad- 
vance. 

The  commis- 
sioners begged 
for  more  funds 
from  France,  and  got  timely  but  inadequate  relief.  The 
news  of  the  fall  of  Philadelphia  was  like  a dash  of  cold 
water.  The  French  government  became  more  and  more 
distant,  yet  Franklin  did  not  give  up  hope.  When  some 
Englishman  said  to  him: 

“Well,  doctor,  Howe  has  taken  Philadelphia,”  he  an- 
swered, “I  beg  your  pardon  sir,  Philadelphia  has  taken 
Howe.” 

This  proved  to  be  true;  yet  even  then  a British  cap- 


Robert  Morris. 


82 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


tain  was  living  in  Franklin’s  house,  tampering  with  his 
electrical  machines,  while  the  patriot’s  daughter  with  her 
four  day’s  old  infant  had  to  be  hurried  out  of  the  city. 

So  dark  did  the  outlook  become  that,  when  the  three 
commissioners  met  at  Passy  to  discuss  the  situation, 
Deane  favored  demanding  from  France  a categorical  an- 
swer to  the  question  of  an  alliance  and,  if  she  refused,  de- 
claring to  her  that  the  alternative  was  an  accommodation 
with  Great  Britain.  But  happily  both  Franklin  and  Lee 
opposed  this.  Probably  Lee  opposed  it  because  he  hated 
Deane  worse  than  he  did  Franklin. 

But  a good  time  was  coming.  After  Bemis  Heights 
and  Stillwater,  Burgoyne  was  compelled  to  surrender. 
Massachusetts  at  once  sent  out  the  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  War,  Jonathan  Loring  Austin,  to  acquaint  France  with 
the  news.  She  prepared  a swift  sailing  vessel  and  as  soon 
as  dispatches  were  ready  bade  the  young  man  “God 
speed.”  For  all  saw  at  once  the  immense  importance  of 
getting  news  to  France  without  delay. 

The  vessel  made  a quick  passage  and  early  in  Decem- 
ber Austin  arrived  at  Passy.  When  his  carriage  was 
heard  in  the  court  all  the  Americans  were  ready  to  receive 
him  and  before  he  could  alight  Franklin  asked  whether 
Philadelphia  was  really  taken,  and  when  the  messenger 
answered  “Yes,”  the  old  man  turned  sorrowfully  away 
as  if  to  enter  the  house.  Then  Austin  exclaimed  that 
Burgoyne  and  his  whole  army  were  prisoners  of  war. 

The  joy  of  the  American  legation  was  too  deep  for  ex- 
pression. Deane  said:  “The  news  was  like  a sovereign 
cordial  for  the  dying.” 


83 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

Soon  dispatches  were  sent  to  Vergennes  at  Versailles. 
At  once  all  Paris  knew  it  and  burst  into  acclamations. 
Soon  all  Europe  knew  it,  too,  and  felt  that  the  colonies 
at  last  were  lost  to  Great  Britain. 

The  attitude  of  the  French  ministry  immediately 
changed.  Two  days  after  the  news  was  received  M.  Ge- 
rard called  to  say  that  a renewal  of  negotiations  for  an 
alliance  would  be  agreeable  to  the  French  government. 
In  a few  days  the  Cabinet  met  and  the  envoys  went  to 
Versailles,  where  in  a concealed  spot  in  the  wood  they  had 
a long  conversation  with  Vergennes.  But  Spain  also  had 
to  be  consulted  and  this  led  to  some  delay.  So  did  a dis- 
agreement over  a clause  that  no  export  duty  should  be 
levied  on  molasses  taken  from  the  French  West  Indian 
islands  to  the  colonies  for  the  manufacture  of  rum.  This 
was  of  importance  because  our  forefathers,  while  extreme- 
ly strict  religionists,  had  succeeded  in  making  molasses 
for  rum  the  “basis  on  which  a very  great  part  of  the  Amer- 
ican commerce  rested.” 

M.  Gerard  demanded  a reciprocal  concession,  which 
Franklin  shrewdly  drew  up  in  the  shape'  of  an  agree- 
ment not  to  lay  export  duties  on  articles  purchased  in 
the  colonies  for  the  French  West  Indies.  At  first  Ar- 
thur Lee  agreed  to  this,  but  afterward  objected  under 
the  influence  of  William  Lee  and  Ralph  Izard,  after  the 
King  had  approved  the  treaty  and  it  had  been  engrossed. 
Gerard  was  disgusted  with  good  reason,  but  finally  con- 
sented to  leave  both  exemptions  to  the  decision  of  Con- 
gress. 

On  February  6th,  all  parties  met  to  sign  the  treaty 


84 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


which,  according  to  the  stipulation,  was  to  be  kept  se- 
cret until  ratified  by  Congress.  At  the  signing  of  the 
treaty  Franklin  wore  the  suit  of  Manchester  velvet  he 
had  worn  when  so  grievously  insulted  in  the  Privy 
Council. 

France  had  feared  some  accommodation  between  the 
colonies  and  Great  Britain,  and  this  accounts  for  her  in- 
creasing liberality,  and  also  for  her  desire  for  secrecy 
until  Congress  acted  on  the  treaty.  There  was  some 
ground  for  this  fear,  for  after  Burgoyne  surrendered  to 
“Mr.  Gates,”  Ford  North  introduced  into  Parliament 
two  conciliatory  bills  which  were  “to  restore  the  form  of 
constitution  as  it  stood  before  the  trouble.” 

But  the  bills  were  passed  too  late,  for  the  treaty  was 
already  signed,  and  news  of  it  had  already  come  to  the 
ears  of  Charles  Fox  and  the  opposition.  They  were 
passed,  however,  and  reached  America  almost  at  the 
same  time  with  the  French  treaty,  and,  of  course,  were 
promptly  rejected  by  Congress. 

Meantime,  Franklin,  who  always  kept  in  communica- 
tion with  the  opposition  party  in  England,  sent  Austin, 
for  whom  he  had  conceived  a great  regard,  on  a secret 
mission  to  Great  Britain.  He  was  to  acquaint  the  op- 
position with  the  latest  news  and  the  real  state  of  affairs 
in  the  colonies.  He  accomplished  his  purpose  with 
skill;  lived  in  the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Shelburne  under 
the  protection  of  Dr.  Priestley;  was  introduced  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  Charles  Fox,  and  was  present  at 
the  meetings  of  the  opposition. 

Of  course  no  reconciliation  with  Great  Britain  which 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  85 

Franklin  had  to  do  with  was  possible,  for  the  King 
hated  Franklin  with  an  extreme  personal  hatred  which 
Franklin  fully  reciprocated 

The  treaty  of  commerce  signed  at  the  same  time  as 


Voltaire. 


that  of  alliance  inserted  the  principle  which  Franklin 
favored,  i.  e .,  that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods  and 
free  persons,  also,  except  soldiers.  After  the  treaty  was 
signed  Voltaire  came  back  to  Paris,  and  the  two  aged 


86 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


men  met  upon  the  stage  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  and 
saluted  each  other,  whereupon,  Frenchmanlike,  the 
crowd  went  wild  with  enthusiasm,  and  embraced  one 
another  to  see  the  “new  Solon  and  Sophocles”  exchange 
greetings. 

Gerard  soon  went  out  as  the  first  French  envoy  to  the 
United  States,  and  with  him  went  Deane.  Their  depart- 
ure was  kept  secret  from  Fee  who  took  offense  and  still 
further  pestered  the  Doctor  with  his  untiring  malevolence. 

Morse  says  that  there  probably  remain  few  epithets  in 
the  English  language  which  have  not  at  some  time  or 
another  been  applied  to  Lee.  He  deserved  them  all  for 
he  did  immense  mischief.  Vergennes  hated  him  and  all 
Europe  ridiculed  his  want  of  capacity.  Franklin  chari- 
tably called  him  insane. 

When  John  Adams  arrived  in  Paris  to  take  Deane’s 
place,  he  found  papers  in  confusion  and  books  and  ac- 
counts badly  kept,  because  a perfectly  enormous  amount 
of  labor  had  been  put  upon  the  commission  with  no  cler- 
ical help.  He  was  much  disposed  to  lay  the  blame  on 
Franklin  at  first,  but  soon  found  out  that  the  condition 
of  affairs  with  three  envoys  and  no  clerical  force  could 
not  be  helped.  He  therefore  advised  reducing  the  num- 
ber to  one  envoy.  Lee  with  his  intense  egotism  thought 
he  would  be  the  one  designated,  but  not  so.  Franklin 
was  left  in  France,  Lee  accredited  to  Spain  as  at  first,  and 
Adams  was  recalled  to  America. 

The  struggle  in  Congress  to  ruin  Dr.  Franklin  and 
procure  his  recall  and  to  put  Arthur  Lee  in  his  place  was 
a bitter  one.  It  was  a cabal  like  that  of  Conway  against 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  87 

Washington  and  was  due,  as  was  Deane’s  ruin,  to  the  al- 
most unheard  of  malevolence  of  Arthur  Lee. 

Under  Franklin’s  assistance  naval  operations  began 
again  with  John  Paul  Jones  as  commander.  He  embar- 
rassed the  Britons  even  more  *than  Conyngham  and 
Wickes;  made  incursions  on  land, 
spiked  guns  in  forts  and  burnt 
ships  under  the  very  noses  of 
Englishmen  before  they  could  re- 
cover from  their  astonishment. 

His  famous  fight  with  the  “ Se - 
rapis ” is  well  known.  It  stirs 
the  blood  yet  to  read  of  the  en- 
gagement, but  it  has  a ridiculous 
side,  for  it  strongly  excites  the 
humor  to  think  of  the  crazy 
Frenchman,  Landais,  captain  under  Jones,  during  the 
battle  sailing  up  and  down,  firing  broadside  after  broad- 
side into  the  uBon  Homme  Richard ” of  his  comman- 
der, too  crazy  with  excitement  to  know  what  he  was 
about.  Soon  Landais  quarrelled  with  Jones  and  Franklin 
had  to  patch  up  that  difference.  Landais  afterward 
went  insane. 

The  financial  duties  of  Franklin  proved  to  be  the  most 
vexatious  and  humiliating  that  he  had  to  perform.  Con- 
gress carried  on  the  war  without  available  funds  or  any 
direct  means  of  deriving  funds.  They  resorted  to  two 
methods  of  meeting  their  obligations,  i.  e .,  issuing  irre- 
deemable paper  money  and  borrowing  abroad. 

Congress  had  no  revenues  because  it  could  lay  no  tax- 


88 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


es.  It  could  only  call  on  the  states  to  pay  their  quotas. 
If  they  saw  fit  to  do  so,  well  and  good,  if  not,  Congress 
had  to  get  along  without  them,  for  there  was  no  way  in 
which  it  could  compel  the  states. 

It  follows  of  course  that  Congress  could  give  no  secur- 
ity for  loans,  and  we  have  the  absurd  picture  of  a debtor 
who  is  utterly  irresponsible  asking  the  loan  of  funds.  All 
that  the  creditor  could  do  was  to  trust  in  Providence. 
To  be  sure  the  states  did  pay  a little  in  driblets  as  they 
were  called  upon,  but  the  sums  were  entirely  inadequate. 

The  paper  money  circulated  in  the  colonies,  but  would 
not,  of  course,  circulate  abroad,  and  even  in  the  colonies 
it  began  at  once  to  depreciate.  The  outcome  of  this  all 
was  that  the  burden  fell  on  the  envoys  to  Europe  who 
were  really  sent  over  there  to  borrow  or  beg  what  they 
could  from  foreign  nations. 

But  this  does  not  complete  the  picture.  Jay  found  it 
impossible  to  get  money  in  Spain,  as  did  John  Adams  in 
Holland.  More  than  that;  just  as  soon  as  their  envoys 
had  left  the  shores  of  America,  Congress  began  sending 
after  them  drafts  for  large  amounts,  with  the  supremest 
indifference  as  to  how  they  could  get  the  money  to  pay 
the  drafts. 

They  even  sent  drafts  on  Henry  Laurens  who  was  cap- 
tured and  sent  to  London  Tower.  The  absurdity  of  it  all 
has  never  been  surpassed. 

All  these  drafts  centered  on  Franklin,  who  was  the 
only  one  who  succeeded  in  getting  money,  and  we  must 
think  of  a continuous  snow-fall  of  drafts  on  his  devoted 
head,  until  he  floundered  about  in  great  difficulty  and 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  89 

was  forever  trying  to  extricate  himself.  He  had  even 
to  pay  Jay’s  household  expenses  in  Spain  because  Con- 
gress did  not  furnish  him  his  salary. 

The  cargoes  of  tobacco,  rice,  indigo,  etc.,  that  were  to 
offset  these  drafts  for  the  most  part  never  came.  Some- 
times the  ship’s  captain 
ran  off  with  them;  some- 
times the  ships  foundered; 
but  oftener  the  British 
captured  them.  Franklin 
said  with  a sigh,  that  it 
simply  resulted  in  the 
English  getting  all  these 
goods  for  nothing. 

Then  Arthur  Lee  and 
Izard  drew  on  him  for 
$10,000  each,  on  the 
ground  that  they  were 
about  to  go  to  Spain  and 
Italy  respectively,  to  which  countries  they  were  ac- 
credited; and  then  they  never  went.  They  did  not  fail, 
however,  to  use  up  the  money. 

The  brave  seamen  who  had  fought  in  the  European' 
waters  for  the  colonies  demanded  their  pay,  and  Frank- 
lin had  to  put  them  off  with  one  suit  of  clothes  apiece. 

To  add  to  the  trouble,  the  individual  states  began  to 
flood  Europe  with  agents  for  the  purpose  of  borrowing 
money,  and  Congress  seemed  to  be  about  as  unconcerned 
as  school  boys  about  drawing  bills  on  anybody  and 
everybody. 


go  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

But  Franklin  carried  the  burden  to  the  end  without 
dropping  it,  thanks  to  the  very  remarkable  good  nature 
and  kindness  of  Vergennes  and  the  French  government. 
The  services  of  Franklin  in  this  regard  can  hardly  be 
overdrawn;  they  were  of  extreme  importance. 

Congress  never  allowed  Franklin,  a man  of  over  sev- 
enty years  of  age,  a secretary  or  copyist,  and  when  he 
took  his  grandson  William  Temple  Franklin  as  a secre- 
tary, he  did  it  on  his  own  responsibility  and  could  pay 
him,  sometimes  his  board,  sometimes  not  even  that. 

Yet  Congress  because  of  Lee  and  others,  persecuted 
the  old  man  through  his  grandson,  formed  a cabal 
against  him  and  threatened  to  discharge  the  young  man. 
Big  business  Congress  was  in!  Franklin  had  asked  many 
times  that  Congress  do  something  in  recognition  of  the 
services  of  William  Temple  Franklin  who  had  sacrificed 
his  prospects  in  life  to  act  as  the  secretary  to  his  grand- 
father. Franklin  never  asked  but  this  one  favor.  Con- 
gress put  the  request  aside,  with  contemptuous  indiffer- 
ence. 

We  can  easily  see  why  at  the  end  of  the  Revolution 
and  during  the  time  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation, 
Congress  had  lost  the  respect  of  the  people. 

Finally  March,  1781,  Franklin  determined  to  resign, 
but  then  Congress  took  alarm  and  refused  to  accept  his 
resignation.  It  had  refused  any  proper  appointment 
and  salary  for  his  grandson;  had  almost  always  neglect- 
ed any  expression  of  thanks  for  his  untiring  services  for 
his  country,  many  of  them  entirely  outside  of  his  regu- 
lar province;  but  when  he  was  worn  out  and  disheart- 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  91 

ened  and  wanted  rest  and  quiet,  they  refused  to  give 
him  that. 

Meantime  Adams  had  been  sent  back,  having  been 
appointed  with  Franklin,  Jay,  Laurens  and  Jefferson,  to 
treat  for  peace. 

Adams  at  once 
set  about  stir- 
ring up  a hor- 
net’s nest  in  the 
French  minis- 
try by  usurping 
part  of  Frank- 
lin’s preroga- 
tives, and  grat- 
nitously  in- 
structing Ver- 
gennes  on  mat- 
ters connected 
with  America. 

Vergennes  dis- 
liked Adams  ex- 
tremely, much  Henry  Laurens. 

as  he  did  Lee. 

When  Congress  passed  the  act  to  redeem  the  continen- 
tal currency,  a considerable  of  which  Frenchmen  held, 
far  below  its  face  value,  Adams  sent  Vergennes  word  of 
it.  The  minister  was  much  exasperated,  and  protested 
against  the  injustice  of  it  as  far  as  the  French  were  con- 
cerned. Adams  was  then  so  lacking  in  tact  as  to  write 
a strong  defence  of  the  action  of  Congress,  and  the  quar- 


92  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

rel  grew  so  bitter  that  both  parties  had  to  call  in  Frank- 
lin to  patch  up  a peace. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  England  had 
made  efforts  to  come  to  some  understanding  with  the 
United  States.  The  British  government  showed  its  ap- 
preciation of  Franklin  by  directing  all  of  its  attention  in 
these  matters  to  him.  He  stood  in  Europe  for  America. 

Franklin’s  old  friend  Hartley  had  been  especially  for- 
ward in  schemes  for  peace.  They  tried  to  frighten 
Franklin  about  the  harm  that  would  come  to  the  colon- 
ies through  “throwing  themselves  into  the  arms”  of  their 
ancient  enemy,  France. 

But  such  efforts  on  the  part  of  England  were  too  thin- 
ly veiled  to  be  effective  with  the  astute  old  man.  Frank- 
lin did  not  propose  that  the  colonies  should  throw  over  a 
friend  who  was  helping  them  to  freedom  for  any  enemy 
who  was  trying  to  enslave  them.  The  battle  of  York- 
town  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  commissioners 
from  America  to  treat  for  peace  were  appointed.  Ford 
North’s  ministry  fell,  and  Rockingham  formed  one  of 
friends  of  America  in  which  was  Charles  Fox  and  Lord 
Shelburne. 

The  negotiations  developed  many  coflicting  interests. 
Lord  Shelburne  had  some  idea  of  making  independence 
a matter  of  treaty  and  providing  for  some  sort  of  federal 
union  instead  of  entire  independence. 

Fox,  who  was  hostile  to  Shelburne  and  wished  to  con- 
trol the  negotiations,  offered  to  grant  immediate  inde- 
pendence. This  split  in  the  Cabinet  led  to  sending  two 
envoys  to  France  both  trying  to  divide  France  and  the 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


93 


United  States.  The  treaty  of  1778  between  the  United 
States  and  France  provided  that  neither  party  should 
make  peace  except  in  conjunction  with  the  other,  and 
England  tried,  in  spite  of  this,  to  deal  with  the  United 
States  and  France  separately.  But  both  Vergennes  and 
Franklin  refused  to  be  parties  to  such  a scheme. 

Spain  also  made  a disturbing  element.  She  had  been 
in  alliance  with  France  and  England  and  had  claims  for 
territory  in  America  and  elsewhere  that  she  wished  to 
further.  So  perplexing  did  affairs  become  that  Frank- 
lin sent  for  Jay  in  hot  haste  to  come  from  Spain  to  aid 
him,  Adams  being  yet  in  Holland. 

When  Jay  got  to  Paris  he  was  convinced  that  France 
was  undertaking  to  deal  with  England  secretly,  to  pre- 
vent the  right  of  fishing  on  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland 
going  into  the  treaty.  He  insisted  also  that  independence 
should  not  be  a matter  of  treaty,  but  should  be  acknowl- 
edged before  any  treaty  was  made.  This  Franklin  was 
inclined  to  waive. 

So  convinced  was  Jay  that  Vergennes  had  sent  an  agent 
to  make  secret  arrangements  with  Eord  Shelburne,  then 
at  the  head  of  the  English  ministry,  that  he  alone,  on  his 
own  responsibility,  sent  Vaughan  secretly  to  proveto  the 
English  minister  that  England’s  advantage  lay  in  siding 
with  the  United  States.  Vaughan  did  his  duty  well  and 
was  sent  back  with  an  amended  document  empowering 
the  English  agent  to  treat  with  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Thirteen  United  States  of  America.  Jay  had  won. 

Meantime  Vergennes  had  been  using  his  influence  on 
Congress  through  the  French  minister,  and  Congress 


94 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


sent  over  stringent  orders  as  to  the  treaty,  that  American 
demands  outside  of  independence  should  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  purposes  of  France. 

This  still  further  convinced  Jay  that  France  intended 
to  jeopardize  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in  regard 
to  matters  other  than  independence.  He  favored  disobey- 
ing the  specific  commands  of  Congress.  On  this  point, 
as  on  several  others,  he  and  Franklin  sharply  differed, 
for  Franklin  could  not  believe  that  France  would  act  un- 
unworthily  of  herself.  To  the  advice  of  Jay  to  conduct 
the  negotiations  without  the  knowledge  of  France,  he  re- 
sponded: “No.” 

It  was  a deadlock,  but  Adams  soon  arrived  from  Hol- 
land sided  with  Jay.  Franklin  then  had  to  give  way,  and 
did  so  without  a quarrel.  He  decided  to  stand  by  his 
colleagues  and  refrain  from  communicating  with  Ver- 
gennes. 

In  this  whole  matter  both  Jay  and  Adams  had  an  axe 
to  grind.  Jay  wanted  the  Mississippi  made  the  Western 
boundary  with  the  right  of  navigation  of  the  river.  Ad- 
ams wanted  to  procure  the  right  of  fishing  off  Newfound- 
land. France  opposed  both  these  demands;  the  first  on 
account  of  her  ally,  Spain;  the  second  on  her  own  ac- 
count. When  they  got  rid  of  her  by  making  a secret 
treaty,  they  won  both  points. 

Such  concessions  drove  Shelburne  out  of  power  for  it 
was  seen  that  the  commissioners  for  the  United  States 
had  done  a brilliant  piece  of  work.  Of  course  Vergennes 
was  indignant  at  the  manner  in  which  the  treaty  was  ar- 
rived at  and  wrote  sharp  letters  to  Franklin,  who  explained 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


95 


the  matter  best  as  he  could.  As  often  happens  in  such 
cases,  Jay  and  Adams  were  condemned  at  home  because 
they  did  not  side  with  France, and  Franklin  because  he  did. 

In  1782  after  the  treaty,  Franklin  resigned  a second 
time,  but  Congress  kept  him  there  until  March,  1785, 
when  it  voted  his  return.  These  years  were  spent  in 
making  commercial  treaties  with  Sweden,  Denmark, 
Portugal,  Morocco  and  Prussia.  The  one  with  Prussia 
called  for  the  abolishment  of  privateering. 

Jefferson  succeeded  Franklin,  and  when  he  was  asked 
“C’est  vous,  Monsieur,  qui  remplace  le  Docteur  Frank- 
lin?” he  replied:  “No  one  can  replace  him,  sir;  I am 
only  his  successor.” 

The  Doctor  left  France  in  the  summer  of  1785,  al- 
though several  persons  had  offered  him  a home  as  long 
as  he  lived.  But  he  desired  to  spend  the  rest  of  his 
days  with  his  family.  When  he  left  he  carried  a por- 
trait of  the  King  framed  in  a double  circle  of  four  hun- 
dred and  eight  diamonds  of  great  cost  and  beauty.  He 
crossed  the  channel  to  take  ship  at  Portsmouth,  and  the 
British  government  did  him  the  honor  to  exempt  his 
baggage  from  examination.  His  son  William,  who  was 
a Tory,  came  to  see  him,  and  a partial  reconciliation 
took  place  between  them. 

On  September  14,  1785,  the  ship  on  which  Franklin 
sailed  came  in  full  view  of  Philadelphia.  For  this  city 
Jhe  had  a genuine  affection,  and  called  it  “dear  Philadel- 
phia.” When  he  landed  at  the  Market  Street  wharf  he 
was  “received  by  a crowd  of  people  with  huzzas,  and  ac- 
companied with  acclamations  quite  to  my  door 


96  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

God  be  praised  and  thanked  for  all  his  mercies.”  He 
received  endless  addresses,  both  public  and  private, 
congratulating  him  on  his  return,  and  they  all  show 
great  consideration  and  even  affection. 

His  health  was  now  fairly  good,  and  in  his  letter  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jay  he  says  that  he  finds  himself  rather 
better  for  the  voyage.  But  his  countrymen  could  not 
do  without  his  services.  They  at  once  elected  him  coun- 
cillor for  Philadelphia,  and  on  taking  his  seat  he  was 
chosen  President  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  a letter  to  his  sister  he  says  in  a playful  way  that 
he  could  not  resist  the  desire  of  his  people,  and  added 
that  when  sent  to  France  he  had  said: 

“They  have  eaten  my  flesh  and  seem  resolved  now  to 
pick  my  bones.”  Dr.  Cooper,  to  whom  he  said  this,  re- 
plied: “The  nearer  the  bone  the  sweeter  the  meat.” 

Yet  Franklin  was  pleased,  nevertheless,  at  their  re- 
gard for  him,  and  refused  to  accept  any  pay  for  his  ser- 
vices in  behalf  of  his  fellow  citizens.  Investments  in 
real  estate  in  Philadelphia  had  turned  out  well,  and 
he  was  in  affluent  circumstances.  He  lived  in  a 
house  which  his  faithful  wife  had  built  several  years 
before.  Surrounded  by  his  daughter  and  her  fam- 
ily, his  friends  and  his  books,  the  old  man  enjoyed  a 
quiet  life  in  his  garden  with  cribbage  and  chess.  He 
speaks  in  his  letters  in  a very  affectionate  way  of  his 
grandchildren,  whose  innocent  play  pleased  his  old  age. 
Yet  he  was  never  idle.  Nor  had  he  ceased  to  be  a joker. 
He  wrote  an  article  for  the  “Pennsylvania  Gazette,”  pro- 
fessing to  advocate  the  transportation  of  American 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  97 

felons  to  England,  as  English  felons  had  been  before 
transported  to  America.  “No  due  returns,”  he  says, 
“have  yet  been  made  for  these  valuable  consignments.” 

He  failed,  however,  to  seize  one  opportunity  of  his 
life.  John  Fitch  visited  him  often  and  tried  to  gain  his 
assistance  for  a new  invention — a steamboat.  But 
Franklin  could  see  no  value  in  the  contrivance  and  griev- 
ously offended  Fitch  by  offering  him  money  in  charity. 

The  feebleness  of  the  government  under  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  caused  him,  as  it  did  other  patriots, 
great  anxiety;  and  especially  as  reports  as  to  the  demor- 
alization of  the  United  States  were  general  in  Europe. 
But  by  private  letters  he  demonstrated  to  his  friends  in 
England  that  things  were  not  so  bad  as  reported. 

In  1786  he  wrote  to  a friend  of  the  manner  in  which 
he  passed  his  time,  in  official  labors,  in  study  and  recre- 
ation in  which  music  played  a part.  He  had  been  so 
persistent  a worker  that  he  had  now  and  then  some 
compunction  about  being  so  idle  as  he  thought  himself; 
“but  another  reflection,”  he  says,  “comes  to  relieve  me, 
whispering,  You  know  that  the  soul  is  immortal;  why 
then  should  you  be  such  a niggard  of  a little  time,  when 
you  have  a whole  eternity  before  you?” 

The  famous  letter  supposed  to  have  been  written  to 
Thomas  Paine  upon  his  work,  “The  Age  of  Reason,” 
although  undated,  belongs  to  this  period.  Parton  be- 
lieves it  to  have  been  written  not  to  Paine  but  to  Dr. 
Edward  Bancroft.  No  one  ever  penned  a more  telling 
rebuke  to  infidel  writings,  and  this  incident  serves  to 
show  what  a remarkable  change  had  come  over  Frank- 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


lin  since  he  penned  his  heretical  tract  in  London.  He 
still  was  interested  in  the  education  of  the  young, 
and  took  great  trouble  to  assist  in  the  location  at  Lan- 
caster of  a college  for  Germans. 

Meanwhile  the  condition  of  the  government  was  be- 
coming unbearable.  Its  impotence  was  well  shown  by 
frequent  domestic  troubles,  riots  and  general  disturbances. 
In  fact,  Shay’s  Rebellion  in  Massachusetts  was  the  thing 
that  frightened  Washington  into  withdrawing  his  declin- 
ation to  attend  the  Constitutional  Convention. 

Franklin  was  not  at  first  elected  a delegate  from  Penn- 
sylvania; but  was  added  afterward,  as  Parton  says,  in  or- 
der that,  in  case  Washington  still  refused,  there  might  be 
some  one  on  whom  all  could  unite  as  president  of  the 
convention.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  much  about  this 
convention,  a subject  on  which  so  much  has  been  writ- 
ten. It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  Franklin  ranged 
himself  against  a strongly  centralized  government.  That 
is,  he  allied  himself  with  what  came  to  be  the  Jefferson 
party  and  not  with  the  Hamilton  party. 

This  fact  no  doubt  had  weight  in  forcing  the  conven- 
tion away  from  a form  of  government  whose  centralizing 
tendencies  would  have  been  too  strong  to  be  wise.  As 
he  had  practiced,  so  he  now  preached.  He  opposed 
granting  any  salary  to  the  president,  as  he  had  refused 
to  accept  any  salary  as  president  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
honor  was  a reward  sufficient  for  any  man. 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  the  early  years  of  devotion  to 
liberty,  and  such  the  romantic  fervor  of  the  first  pure  love 
of  freedom.  Would  that  more  of  it  was  left!  He  was 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


99 


in  favor  of  a legislature  of  one  house  and  against  the 
equality  of  states.  When  the  struggle  between  the  op- 
posing parties  on  the  last  named  subject  seemed  about  to 
disrupt  the  convention,  his  compromise  saved  the  Union. 
When  the  Constitution  was  finished,  he  found  as  many 
others  did,  that  not  all  parts  were  satisfactory  to  him  per- 
sonally, yet  he  heartily  supported  it.  When  the  instru- 
ment was  signed,  looking  toward  the  President’s  chair  on 
which  a sun  was  painted,  he  said  he  had  not  up  to  that 
time  been  able  to  tell  whether  it  was  a rising  or  a setting 
sun;  but  on  the  happy  termination  of  the  convention  he 
said:  “I  have  the  happiness  to  know  that  is  a rising  and 
not  a setting  sun.” 

, It  is  remarkable  that  Franklin  was  one  of  only  three 
or  four  persons  in  the  convention  that  thought  prayers 
necessary  at  the  opening  of  each  session. 

After  the  adjournment  he  exerted  himself  to  promote 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  when  ten  states  had 
ratified,  they  had  in  Philadelphia  a great  celebration  and 
and  a procession  in  which  was  a printer’s  car  which  struck 
off,  as  it  proceeded,  and  scattered  among  the  people,  a 
ditty  which  Franklin  himself  had  written. 

He  was  elected  a third  time  President  of  Pennsylvania 
although  eighty  one  years  old,  and  said  of  himself: 

“I  seem  to  have  intruded  myself  into  the  company  of 
posterity,  when  I ought  to  have  been  abed  and  asleep.” 
Such  was  his  idea  of  death. 

His  growing  infirmities  warned  him  that  his  end  was 
not  far  off,  and  he  looked  forward  to  the  end  of  life  with 
complaisance,  for  he  was,  he  said,  growing  curious  to 


IOO 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


find  out  something  of  another  world.  He  suffered 
much  pain,  too,  at  intervals,  but  bore  it  with  patience 
and  firmness.  He  wrote  to  a friend  in  November  of 
1788:  “People  that  will  live  a long  life  and  drink  to 
the  bottom  of  the  cup  must  expect  to  meet  with  some  of 
the  dregs.” 

Providence  allowed  him  to  live  long  enough  to  see  his 
country,  for  which  he  had  long  labored,  established  un- 
der a secure  and  vigorous  government  with  George  Wash- 
ington, whom  he  supported,  as  its  first  President. 

He  lived  long  enough,  also,  to  see  the  beginning  of 
that  terrible  upheaval  — the  French  Revolution.  He  was 
profoundly  interested,  yet  he  did  not  understand  the  gen- 
ius of  the  movement  as  Jefferson  did.  Franklin,  when 
in  France,  had  seen  the  fair  side  of  the  French  life;  he 
had  known  the  educated  class  of  nobility;  he  had  not 
explored  the  lower  walks  of  life,  the  highways  and  hedg- 
es, as  Jefferson  had,  to  see  how  the  peasant  lived  and 
toiled  and  died. 

The  last  months  of  his  life  he  spent  mostly  in  bed,  an 
acute  sufferer.  Yet  when  the  pain  ceased  for  a time  he 
was  again  at  work. 

He  was  a hater  of  slavery  and  one  of  his  last  acts  was 
a memorial  addressed  to  Congress,  as  president  of  the 
abolition  society,  to  discourage  the  slave  trade  and  re- 
move that  “inconsistency  from  the  character”  of  Ameri- 
can government.  And  as  late  as  March  23,  1790,  he 
wrote  a characteristic  answer  to  the  pro-slavery  speech  in 
Congress  of  Jackson  of  Georgia. 

Franklin  died  April  17,  1790,  aged  eighty  four  years 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  ioi 

and  three  months.  France  mourned  over  his  death  as 
sincerely  and  with  more  recognition  of  his  great  worth 
than  his  own  country.  Mirabeau  delivered  a eulogy 
and  the  President  of  the  National  Assembly  commu- 
nicated to  Washington  their  resolution  to  wear  mourn- 


Franklin’s  Grave,  Christ’s  Churchyard,  Cor.  Fifth  and  Arch  Streets, 
Philadelphia. 

ing  for  three  days.  Yet  after  all  he  had  done  for  his 
country  he  never  succeeded  in  getting  Congress  to  put 
aside  its  indifference  enough  to  audit  his  accounts  and 
discharge  them. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  Franklin  attracts  even  in 
the  readers  of  his  life  a personal  regard.  He  had  many 


102 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


friends  and  they  were  close  and  constant.  Even  in  Eng- 
land during  the  war  this  was  true . He  had  some  enemies. 
The  proprietary  party  hated  him  bitterly  and  that  feeling 
has  been  handed  down.  The  Adams  party  in  New  Eng- 
land disliked  him  and  have  handed  down  that  dislike  to 
their  descendants. 

Franklin  was  great  intellectually  as  few  men  have  been 
great.  He  was  great  in  his  diversity  of  powers;  and  his 
range  of  activities  was  remarkable.  He  was  great  mor- 
ally, and  he  had  a very  wide  and  remarkable  influence 
as  a moral  teacher.  His  moral  teachings,  although  not 
always  of  the  highest  type,  are  helpful  and  wholesome. 

He  never  announced  himself  as  a follower  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  it  is  unfortunate  that  it  is  true.  He  wrote  to 
Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,  President  of  Yale  College,  that  he 
thought  the  system  of  morals  taught  by  Jesus  of  Nazar- 
eth the  best  world  ever  saw  or  was  likely  to  see;  yet  he 
had  to  confess  “some  doubts  as  to  his  divinity,”  although 
on  that  subject  he  did  not  pretend  to  dogmatize.  It 
seems  certain,  however,  that  he  underwent  an  enormous 
change  in  his  lifetime  in  his  attitude  toward  religious  and 
moral  truth. 

As  he  grew  older  he  drew  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
Christian  ideal  of  faith  as  well  as  works.  For  when  his 
end  was  about  to  come,  he  had  a picture  of  Christ  upon 
the  Cross  placed  where  he  could  keep  his  eyes  upon  it, 
and  with  his  eyes  upon  that  pledge  of  sacrifice  he  died. 
For  he  was  accustomed  to  say: 

“That  is  the  picture  of  one  who  came  into  the  world 
to  teach  men  to  love  one  another.” 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


103 


FRANKLIN  WITHOUT  PERSONAL  ENEMIES,  HIMSELF  EV- 
ERY MAN’S  FRIEND. 

In  the  year  1784,  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  seventy- 
eight  years  old,  while  United  States  Minister  to  France, 
wrote  to  his  distinguished  friend,  John  Jay,  thus: 

“I  have,  as  you  observe,  some  enemies  in  England, 
but  they  are  my  enemies  as  an  American.  I have  also 
twTo  or  three  in  America  who  are  my  enemies  as  a minis- 
ter, but  I thank  God  there  are  not  in  the  whole  world 
any  who  are  my  enemies  as  a man , for  by  His  grace, 
through  a long  life,  I have  been  enabled  so  to  conduct 
myself  that  there  does  not  exist  a human  being  who  can 
justly  say,  ‘Benjamin  Franklin  has  wronged  me.’  This, 
my  friend,  is  in  old  age  a comfortable  reflection.” 

franklin’s  sagacity  and  wisdom. 

Franklin’s  practical  sagacity  and  wisdom  are  shown 
in  the  following  incidents: 

In  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  Franklin  found 
great  difficulty  in  carrying  out  the  necessary  measures 
for  military  defense,  because  a majority  of  the  mem- 
bers were  Quakers,  who,  though  friendly  to  the  success 
of  the  Revolution,  refused  to  vote  the  supplies  of  war. 


104 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


So  Franklin  caused  them  to  vote  appropriations  to  buy 
bread,  flour,  wheat,  or  other  grain.  The  governor  said, 
“I  will  take  the  money,  for  I understand  their  meaning, 
— other  grain  is  gunpowder.” 

Franklin  afterward  moved  the  purchase  of  a fire-en- 
gine, saying  to  a friend,  “Nominate  me  on  the  commit- 
tee, and  I will  nominate  you,  we  will  buy  a great  gun, 
which  is  certainly  a fire-engine.  The  Quakers  can  have 
no  objection  to  that.”  Matthew  Arnold,  in  his  address 
on  Emerson  in  this  country,  said  that  he  considered  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  the  greatest  of  all  Americans. 

THE  SILVER  HOOK. 

The  following  incident  contains  a good  hint  to  men 
who  are  not  blacksmiths;  a hint  to  such  as  have  learned 
useful  trades,  but  have  not  learned  what  is  infinitely 
more  valuable;  that  divine  philanthropy  which  alone  can 
make  their  trades  their  delight,  and  thus  strew  life  over 
with  roses: 

Dr.  Franklin  observing  one  day  a hearty  young  fellow, 
whom  he  knew  to  be  an  extraordinary  blacksmith,  sit- 
ting on  the  wharf,  bobbing  for  little  mud-cats  and  eels; 
he  called  to  him. 

“Ah,  Tom,  what  a pity  ’ tis  you  don’t  fish  with  a sil- 
ver hook.  ” 

The  young  man  replied,  “I  am  not  able  to  fish  with  a 
silver  hook.” 

Some  days  after  this  the  doctor,  passing  that  way,  saw 
Tom  out  at  the  end  of  the  wharf  again,  with  his  long 
pole  bending  over  the  flood. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  105 

“What,  Tom,”  cried  the  doctor,  “have  you  not  got  the 
silver  hook  yet?” 

“God  bless  you,  doctor,’’  cried  the  blacksmith,  “I’m 
hardly  able  to  fish  with  an  iron  hook.” 

“Poll!  poh!”  replied  the  doctor,  “go  home  to  your  an- 
vil; and  you’ll  make  silver  enough  in  one  day  to  buy 
more  and  better  fish  than  you  would  catch  here  in  a 
month.” 

FRANKLIN  AND  THE  GREAT  SEAL  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES. 

The  final  vote  on  declaring  the  colonies  of  the  United 
States  free  and  independent  was  taken  July  4,  1776,  at 
two  in  the  afternoon.  About  four  hours  later  a commit- 
tee consisting  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Jefferson,  were  appointed  to  prepare  a Great 
Seal  for  the  new  republic.  On  the  ninth  of  July,  1776, 
the  committee  met  in  the  London  Coffee  House,  which 
still  stands  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Front  and  Market 
Streets,  Philadelphia. 

Several  designs  were  submitted  at  this  and  subsequent 
meetings  by  D41  Simitiere  and  Jefferson,  with  sugges- 
tions by  Adams  and  Franklin.  The  one  proposed  by 
Du  Simitiere  had  the  arms  of  the  several  nations  from 
whence  America  had  been  peopled,  as  English,  Scotch, 
Irish,  Dutch,  German,  etc.,  each  in  a shield. 

On  one  side  of  them  he  placed  Liberty  with  her  cap; 
on  the  other  a rifleman  in  his  uniform,  with  his  rifle  in 
one  hand,  and  a tomahawk  in  the  other,  that  dress  and 
weapons  being  peculiar  to  America. 


io6  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

Dr.  Franklin  proposed  for  the  device,  Moses  lifting 
his  wand  and  dividing  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  char- 
iot of  Pharaoh,  and  his  host  overwhelmed  with  the 
waters. 

For  a motto,  he  suggested  the  words  of  Cromwell, 
“Rebellion  to  tyrants  is  obedience  to  God.” 

Nothing  came 
of  the  action  of 
this  committee. 
Later  on  other 
committees 
were  appointed 
and  other  de- 
signs submitted. 
At  last  Congress 
in  June,  1782, 
adopted  the 
present  Seal  of 
the  United 
States. 

The  design  of 
this  Seal  was 
sent  by  John  Adams  from  England  to  Charles  Thomson, 
the  Secretary  of  Congress,  to  whom  the  whole  matter 
had  been  referred. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  a British  aristocrat 
gave  us  the  design.  For  it  was  furnished  by  Sir  John 
Prestwich,  a baronet  of  the  west  of  England,  who  was  a 
fast  friend  of  the  Americans  during  the  Revolutionary 
war,  and  an  accomplished  antiquarian. 


Du  Simitiere’s  Design  for  Seal  of  the  United  States. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  107 

TRUE  INDEPENDENCE. 

This  anecdote  contains  much  that  is  suggestive  to  the 
modern  press. 

Soon  after  his  establishment  in  Philadelphia,  Franklin 
was  offered  a piece  for  publication  in  his  newspaper.  Be- 
ing very  busy,  he  begged  the  gentleman  would  leave  it 
for  consideration.  The  next  day  the  author  called  and 
asked  his  opinion  of  it. 

“Why,  sir,”  replied  Franklin,  “I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  I think  it  highly  scurrilous  and  defamatory. 
But  being  at  a loss  on  account  of  my  poverty  whether 
to  reject  it  or  not,  I thought  I would  put  it  to  this  issue 
— at  night,  when  my  work  was  done,  I bought  a twopenny 
loaf,  on  which,  with  a mug  of  cold  water,  I supped  heart- 
ily, and  then  wrapping  myself  in  my  greatcoat,  slept  very 
soundly  on  the  floor  till  morning,  when  another  loaf  and 
a mug  of  water  afforded  me  a pleasant  breakfast. 
Now,  sir,  since  I can  live  very  comfortably  in  this 
manner,  why  should  I prostitute  my  press  to  personal  hat- 
red or  passion,  for  a more  luxurious  living?” 

One  cannot  read  this  anecdote  of  our  American  sage 
without  thinking  of  Socrates’  reply  to  King  Archilaus, 
who  had  pressed  him  to  give  up  preaching  in  the  dirty 
street  of  Athens,  and  come  and  live  with  him  in  his  splen- 
did courts.  “Meal,  please  your  majesty,  is  a halfpenny  a 
peck  at  Athens,  and  water  I can  get  for  nothing.” 

FRANKLIN  AND  THE  WIG. 

Nothing  can  better  illustrate  the  spirit  which  Dr.  Frank- 
lin carried  with  him  to  the  court  of  Louis  XVI,  and  the 


108  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

spirit  he  found  there  than  this  story:  On  Dr.  Franklin’s 
arrival  at  Paris,  as  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States,  the  king  expressed  a wish  to  see  him  immediate- 
ly. As  there  was  no  going  to  the  court  of  France  in 
those  days  without  permission  of  the  wigmaker,  a wig- 

maker,  of  course,  was 
sent  for.  In  an  instant 
a richly  dressed  Mon- 
sieur, his  arms  folded 
in  a prodigious  muff  of 
furs,  and  a long  sword 
by  his  side,  made  .his 
appearance.  It  was  the 
king’s  wigmaker,  with 
his  servant  in  livery,  a 
long  sword  by  his  side,  too,  and  a load  of  sweet-scented 
bandboxes,  full  of  “de  wig,”  as  he  said,  “de  superb  wig 
for  de  great  Docteer  Frankline.  ” 

One  of  the  wigs  was  tried  on — a world  too  small! 
Bandbox  after  bandbox  was  tried;  but  all  with  the  same 
ill  success!  The  wigmaker  fell  into  the  most  violent 
rage,  to  the  extreme  mortification  of  Dr.  Franklin  that  a 
gentleman  so  bedecked  with  silks  and  perfumes  should, 
notwithstanding,  be 'such  a child. 

Presently,  however,  as  in  all  the  transports  of  a grand 
discovery,  the  wigmaker  cried  out  to  Dr.  Franklin,  that 
he  had  just  found  out  where  the  fault  lay  — “not  in  his 
wig  as  too  small;  Oh,  no!  his  wig  was  not  too  small;  but 
de  docteers  head  too  big;  great  deal  too  big.”  Franklin, 
smiling,  replied,  that  the  fault  could  hardly  lie  there;  for 


Signatures  of  the  Commissioners  to 
France. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


109 


his  head  was  made  by  the  Almighty  himself,  who 
was  not  likely  to  err.  Upon  this  the  wigmaker  took  in 
a little;  but  still  contended  that  there  must  be  something 
the  matter  with  Dr.  Franklin’s  head. 

It  was  at  any  rate,  he  said,  out  of  the  fashion. 

He  begged  Dr.  Franklin  would  only  “please  for  re- 
member, dat  his  head  had  not  de  honeer  to  be  made  in 
Paree.  No,  no!  for  if  it  had  been  made  in  Paree,  it  not 
bin  more  dan  half  such  a head.  None  of  the  French 
noblesse,”  he  declared,  “had  a head  any  ting  like  his. 
Not  de  great  Duke  d’ Orleans,  nor  de  grand  monarque 
himself  had  half  such  a head  as  Docteer  Frankline.”  And 
he  did  not  see,  he  said,  “what  business  anybody  had 
wid  ahead  more  big  dan  de  head  of  de  great  monarque.” 

Pleased  to  see  the  poor  wigmaker  recover  his  good  hu- 
mor, Dr.  Franklin  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  put  a 
check  to  his  childish  rant,  but  related  one  of  his  fine  anec- 
dotes, which  struck  the  wigmaker  with  such  an  idea  of 
his  wit,  that  as  he  retired,  bowing  most  profoundly,  he 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  with  a look  most  significant- 
ly arch,  he  said: 

“Ah,  Docteer  Frankline!  Docteer  Frankline!  I no  won- 
der your  head  too  big  for  my  wig.  I ’fraid  your  head  be 
too  big  for  all  de  French  nationg.” 

OUR  FIRST  FLAG. 

As  a nation  we  are  the  most  pictorial  in  the  world,  and 
we  began  early  to  read  from  symbols,  our  first  standard 
of  independent  rule  being  the  design  of  a rattlesnake  cut 
in  thirteen  pieces,  representing  the  thirteen  colonies,  bear- 
ing first  the  motto,  “Unite  or  die,”  and  later  the  signifi- 


iio 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


cant  warning,  “Dont  tread  on  me,”  the  rattlesnake  being 
typified  in  an  attitude  prepared  to  strike. 

Dr.  Franklin,  seeing  the  emblem  one  day  wrote  of  it 
in  this  admirable  explanation: 

“On  inquiry  and  from  study  I learn  that  the  ancients 
considered  the  serpent  an  emblem  of  wisdom,  and  in  some 
attitudes  of  endless  duration.  Also,  that  countries  are 
often  represented  by  animals  peculiar  to  that  country. 

The  rattlesnake  is  found  nowhere  but  in  America. 
Her  eye  is  exceedingly  bright  and  without  eyelids— em- 
blem of  vigilance.  She  never  begins  an  attack  and  she 
never  surrenders— emblem  of  magnanimity  and  courage. 

She  never  wounds  even  her  enemies  until  she  gener- 
ously gives  them  warning  not  to  tread  on  her,  which  is 
emblematical  of  the  spirit  of  the  people  who  inhabit  her 
country.  She  appears  apparently  weak  and  defenseless, 
but  her  weapons  are  neverthelss  formidable.  Her  poison 
is  the  necessary  means  for  the  digestion  of  her  food  but 
certain  death  to  her  enemies — showing  the  power  of 
American  resources. 

Her  thirteen  rattles,  the  only  part  which  increases  in 
number,  are  distinct  from  each  other,  and  yet  so  united 
that  they  cannot  be  disconnected  without  breaking  them 
to  pieces— showing  the  impossibility  of  an  American  re- 
public without  a union  of  states. 

A single  rattle  will  give  no  sound  alone,  but  the  ring- 
ing of  the  thirteen  together  is  sufficient  to  startle  the 
boldest  man  alive.  She  is  beautiful  in  youth,  and  her 
beauty  increases  with  age.  He  tongue  is  forked  as  the 
lightning,and  her  abode  is  among  the  impenetrable  rocks.” 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


iii 


THE  STORY  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


FOR  A SCHOOL  OR  CLUB  PROGRAMME. 


Each  numbered  paragraph  is  to  be  given  to  a pupil  or 
member  to  read,  or  to  recite,  in  a clear,  distinct  tone. 


If  the  school 
or  club  is  small, 
each  person 
may  take  three 
or  four  para- 
graphs, but 
should  not  be 
required  to  re- 
cite them  in  suc- 
cession. 

1 . Benjamin 
Franklin  was  born 
in  Boston,  January 
17,  1706. 

2.  His  father, 
Josiah  Franklin, 
was  of  English  des- 
cent. He  was  an 
excellent  man,  of  a 
firm  and  healthy 
texture  of  charac- 
ter, “fond  of  me- 
chanical opera- 
tions, skilled  in 
drawing  and  much 
given  to  music. 


Birthplace  of  Franklin,  Milk  Street, 
Boston,  Mass. 


3.  Franklin  says  of  him,  “He  turned  our  attention  to  what  was 
good,  just  and  prudent  in  the  conduct  of  life.”  At  the  age  of  eighty- 
nine  years  he  died,  honored  by  all  who  knew  him. 

4.  Franklin’s  mother  was  Abiah  Folger,  a daughter  of  Peter 
Folger,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  New  England,  whom  Cotton 
Mather  styled  “a  godly  and  learned  Englishman.”  He  was  a writer 


1 12  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

of  political  verses,  and  a zealous  opponent  of  the  persecution  of  the 
Quakers. 

5.  His  mother  lived  to  be  eighty-five  years  of  age,  bequeathing 
to  her  son  Benjamin  her  splendid  physical  traits. 

6.  When  young  Benjamin  was  eight  years  old  he  was  sent  to  the 
Boston  Grammar  School.  He  was  a ready  learner,  and  made  rapid 
progress  in  his  classes,  rising  from  one  to  the  other. 

7.  Such  was  his  precocity  that  his  father  thought  of  sending  him 
to  Harvard  College  and  educating  him  for  the  ministry.  But  the 
wants  of  his  large  family  were  so  numerous  that  he  could  not  afford 
the  expense  of  this. 

8.  At  the  age  of  ten  years,  his  father  took  him  into  his  chandlery 
to  teach  him  his  own  trade,  but  it  was  so  distasteful  to  the  boy  that 
he  was  permitted,  two  years  later,  to  become  an  apprentice  to  his 
brother  James,  a printer. 

9.  This  action  of  his  father  prevented  the  carrying  out  of  Benja- 
min’s desire  to  run  away  and  go  to  sea. 

10.  His  natural  fondness  for  knowledge  made  him  an  insatiable 
reader.  He  devoured  all  the  books  he  could  borrow,  and  would  often 
pass  the  greater  part  of  the  night  in  reading  or  study. 

11.  The  few  shillings  that  found  their  way  into  his  hands  were 
all  laid  out  in  books  instead  of  sweetmeats,  of  which  children  are 
generally  so  fond.  Daniel  Defoe,  the  author  of  ‘’Robinson  Crusoe,” 
“The  Pilgrim’s  Progress,”  “Plutarch’s  Lives,”  were  among  his  favor- 
ites. But  soon  he  was  studying  Locke’s  “Essay  on  the  Human  Under- 
standing,” and  the  Port  Royal  Logic,  heavy  works  for  one  of  his  ten- 
der years. 

12.  When  Benjamin  was  fifteen  years  of  age,  his  brother  James 
began  to  print  the  “New  England  Courant,”  the  third  newspaper 
published  in  Boston  and  the  fourth  in  America. 

13.  For  this  paper  young  Franklin  wrote  anonymous  articles  of 
great  merit,  which  were  attributed  to  men  of  eminence  in  the  colony. 

14.  To  improve  his  style  Benjamin  read  “The  Spectator,”  and 
endeavored  to  imitate  it.  He  was  careful  and  laborious  in  his  writ- 
ings, and  in  the  end  acquired  a style  noted  for  its  singular  purity  and 
simplicity. 

15.  The  “New  England  Courant”  soon  got  into  trouble,  for  the 
freedom  with  which  men  and  events  were  handled  by  Benjamin. 

16.  In  1723  the  General  Court  ordered  that  the  paper  should  not 
be  published,  “except  it  first  be  supervised.” 

17.  When  he  was  seventeen  years  old  Franklin  resolved  to 
leave  Boston  and  seek  his  fortune  elsewhere;  and  in  October,  1723, 
set  sail  in  a sloop  for  New  York. 

18.  Unable  to  find  employment  in  New  York,  he  set  out  for 
Philadelphia,  which  he  reached  after  many  hardships  and  adventures. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  113 

19.  With  hands  sorely  blistered  from  rowing,  with  but  a dollar 
in  his  pocket,  and  without  a friend  he  began  life  in  the  Quaker  city. 

20.  With  a roll  under  each  arm,  and  eating  a third,  he  set  out  in 
search  of  a lodging  and  employment. 

21.  There  were  but  two  printers  in  Philadelphia  at  this  time, 
and  one  of  them,  a Mr.  Keimer,  took  him  into  his  primitive  printing 
establishment. 

22.  He  took  comfortable  lodgings  in  the  house  of  a Mr.  Read, 
with  whose  charming  daughter,  Deborah,  he  soon  fell  in  love. 

23.  Sir  William  Keith,  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  became 
attracted  to  Franklin,  and  invited  him  to  his  house,  giving  him  also 
the  free  use  of  his  library. 

24.  The  Governor  advised  him  to  set  up  a printing  establish- 
ment of  his  own,  and  urged  him  to  make  a voyage  to  London  to  pur- 
chase the  necessary  articles,  promising  to  assist  him  and  give  him 
letters  of  introduction. 

25.  When  the  ship  sailed,  the  letter-bag  was  opened,  but  not  a 
scrap  from  the  Governor  did  it  contain.  Franklin,  therefore, 
reached  London  in  the  spring  of  1724,  in  as  destitute  a plight  as  he 
had  landed  in  Philadelphia. 

26.  But  he  worked  hard  at  his  printer’s  trade  for  a little  more 
than  two  years  in  London,  and  saved  the  greater  part  of  his  wages. 

27.  In  the  autumn  of  1726  he  made  his  way  back  to  Philadelphia, 
and  in  1729  became  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  “Pennsylvania  Ga- 
zette,” which  he  made  very  popular. 

28.  On  September  1,  1730,  he  married  Miss  Deborah  Read,  and 
lived  most  happily  with  her  until  her  death,  December  19,  1774. 

29.  Though  devoting  himself  assiduously  to  business  he  contin- 
ued his  literary  pursuits,  and  organized,  in  1731,  a club  called  “The 
Junto,”  composed  of  acquaintances  of  congenial  tastes.  Out  of  this 
grew  the  idea  in  Franklin’s  mind  of  a public  library,  which  after- 
wards developed,  into  that  noble  institution,  the  Philadelphia  Li- 
brary. 

30.  In  1732  he  began  the  publication  of  the  famous  “Poor  Rich- 
ard’s Almanac,”  which  he  continued  to  issue  regularly  for  twenty-five 
years. 

31.  In  1736  he  was  made  Clerk  of  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvan- 
ia, and  in  1737  was  appointed  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  and  intro- 
duced into  that  office  the  excellent  system  with  which  he  managed 
all  his  affairs. 

32.  In  1738  he  organized  a fire  company,  the  first  of  the  kind 
ever  established  in  this  country. 

33.  In  1742  he  invented  the  “open  stove  for  the  better  warming 
cf  rooms,”  an  invention  which  is  still  in  use. 

34.  In  1744  Franklin  )roposed  a volunteer  association  for  the 


1 14  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

protection  of  the  Province  against  the  savages,  and  at  one  time  held 
the  command  of  the  Pennsylvania  volunteers. 

35.  In  1747  he  was  elected  to  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
continued  a member  of  that  body  for  ten  years. 

36.  In  1752  he  made  his  renowned  experiment  in  electricity  by 
flying  a kite  of  silk  during  a thunder  storm.  He  received  the  degree 
of  M.  A.  from  Harvard  and  Yale  Colleges. 

_ 37.  In  1753  he  was  appointed  Deputy  Postmaster-General  of  the 
British  Colonies,  on  account  of  his  excellent  management  of  the 
Philadelphia  Post  Office. 


Philadelphia  Library,  Pounded  by  Franklin. 
(From  an  Old  Print.) 


38.  In  1754  Franklin  became  a conspicuous  figure  in  Continen- 
tal politics,  and  was  sent  to  the  Congress  at  Albany  as  a Commission- 
er from  Pennsylvania. 

39.  At  the  Albany  Congress  Franklin  brought  forth  the  first  co- 
herent scheme  ever  propounded  for  securing  a permanent  Federal 
union  of  the  thirteen  colonies.  But  public  opinion  was  not  yet  ripe 
for  the  adoption  of  the  bold  and  comprehensive  ideas  which  it  con- 
tained, and,  in  consequence,  it  was  rejected. 

40.  In  1755,  by  the  steadfast  personal  exertions  of  Franklin, 
General  Braddock  was  enabled  to  obtain  horses,  wagons  and  provis- 
ions for  his  expedition.  For  the  payment  of  these  Franklin  pledged 
his  own  property. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  115 

41.  In  1757  Franklin  was  sent  over  to  England  as  agent  for 
Pennsylvania,  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Assembly  before  the  privy 
council.  The  duties  of  the  position  kept  him  live  years  in  England. 

42.  His  discoveries  and  writings  had  won  him  now  a European 
reputation,  and  in  1762  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  the 
Universities  of  Oxford  and  Edinburgh. 

43.  In  1764  Franklin  was  ^nt  again  to  England  as  agent  for 
Pennsylvania,  and  was  instructed  to  make  every  effort  to  prevent  the 
passage  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

44.  But  when  the  obnoxious  measure  was  passed  in  1765,  Frank- 
lin counselled  submission.  “In  this  case,  however,  the  wisdom  of 
this  wisest  of  Americans  proved  inferior  to  the  ‘collective  wisdom’  of 
his  fellow  countrymen.”  The  Stamp  Act  was  soon  repealed,  and 
Franklin’s  testimony,  in  which  was  evinced  his  strong  Sense  and  va- 
ried knowledge,  contributed  greatly  to  the  desired  result. 

45.  In  1774  Franklin  was  tried  before  the  privy  council  for  his 
connection  with  the  historical  “Hutchinson  Letters.”  He  was  vilified 
and  abused,  but  bore  the  ordeal  nobly.  The  infuriated  King  dis- 
missed him  the  day  after  the  affair,  from  his  position  of  Deputy  Post- 
master-General. 

46.  When  the  demand  was  made  on  Massachusetts  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  tea  destroyed  in  Boston  Harbor,  Franklin  went  so  far  as 
to  advise  Massachusetts  to  make  the  payment,  fearing  that  war  would 
result  if  it  were  refused. 

47.  Samuel  Adams,  on  hearing  of  this,  said:  “Franklin  may  be 
a good  philosopher,  but  he  is  a bungling  politician.”  “In  this  in- 
stance Franklin  showed  himself  less  far-sighted  than  Adams  and  the 
people  of  Massachusetts.” 

48.  After  using  all  his  efforts  at  conciliation  between  the  King 
and  the  colonies,  which  he  found  fruitless,  he  returned  to  America, 
arriving  in  Philadelphia  May  5,  1775,  to  find  the  shedding  of  blood 
had  just  begun. 

49.  When  the  news  of  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  reached  him, 
he  wrote  to  his  friends  in  England,  “Americans  will  fight,  England 
has  lost  her  colonies  forever.” 

50.  When  Samuel  Adams  proposed  his  plan  for  a confederation 
the  colonies,  which  did  not  meet  with  general  approval,  that  sturdy 
patriot  said,  “If  none  of  the  rest  will  join,  I will  endeavor  to  unite  the 
New  England  colonies  in  confederating.” 

51.  Franklin  said  to  Adams,  “I  approve  your  proposal,  and  if 
you  succeed  I will  cast  in  my  lot  among  you.” 

52.  Franklin  earnestly  supported  the  proposition  for  a Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  affixed  his  signature  to  it  on  July  4,  1776. 
He  said,  with  grim  humor,  after  the  signing,  “Now,  gentlemen,  we 
must  all  hang  together,  or  we  shall  hang  separately.” 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


1 16 


53.  By  never  wasting  time  Franklin  had  acquired  a knowledge 
of  the  French  language,  with  Italian  and  Spanish  also,  besides  get- 
ting some  acquaintance  with  the  Latin.  He  was  thus  fitted  for  the 
important  position  of  Commissioner  Plenipotentiary  to  the  Court  of 
France  in  1776,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one. 

54.  He  became  the  most  popular  man  in  Paris,  and  was  over- 
whelmed with  attentions  from  the  learned,  the  nobility  and  the  com- 
mon people.  He  rendered,  while  in  France,  the  most  signal  services 
to  his  beloved  country. 

55.  He  returned  to  America  in  1785,  and  was  soon  after  elected 
President  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  of  Philadelphia — the 
Chief  Executive  of  the  State.  He  was  twice  re-elected,  his  last  term 
expiring  in  October,  1788.  He  was  a delegate  to  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion of  1787,  which  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

56.  On  April  17,  1790,  this  distinguished  American  passed  away 
at  the  age  of  eighty-four  years  and  three  months. 

57.  The  mortal  remains  of  Franklin  were  laid  away  to  rest  in 
the  northwest  portion  of  Christ  churchyard  at  the  corner  of  5th  and 
Arch  Streets,  Philadelphia,  under  a plain  marble  stone,  inscribed, 
“Benjamin  and  Deborah  Franklin.” 

58.  We  can  truly  say  of  Franklin,  “He  was  at  once  philosopher, 
statesman,  diplomatist,  scientific  discoverer,  inventor,  philanthropist, 
moralist  and  wit;  while,  as  a writer  of  English,  he  was  surpassed  by 
few  men  of  his  time.  He  is  in  many  respects,  the  greatest  of  Ameri- 
cans, and  one  of  the  greatest  men  whose  names  are  recorded  in  his- 
tory.” 


PROGRAMME  FOR  A FRANKLIN  EVENING. 

1.  Music. 

2.  Anecdotes  of  Franklin. 

3.  Essay — Franklin’s  Youth  and  Apprenticeship.  Discussion  of 
same. 

4.  Reading  of  Extracts  from  Poor  Richard’s  Almanac. 

5.  Music — Vocal  or  Instrumental. 

6.  Essay — The  first  American  Flag,  and  Franklin’s  Interpreta- 
tion of  its  Meaning.  Discussion  of  the  same. 

7.  Essay — “Eripint  ccelo  fulmen,  sceptrumque  tyrannis."  Trans- 
lated: “He  snatched  the  lightning  from  heaven  and  the  scepter  from 
tyrants.” 

8.  Music. 

9.  Franklin  as  a Diplomatist. 

10.  Song — “America.” 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  117 

QUESTIONS  FOR  REVIEW. 

Where  is  the  tablet  that  marks  the  birthplace  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin? What  was  the  name  of  Franklin  s father?  Of  what  stock  did 
his  family  coon e?  What  was  their  statiooi? 

What  was  the  naone  of  Franklin's  mother?  Of  what  stock  did 
she  conie? 

What  ooiay  be  said  of  the  hereditaoy  traits  of  Fraoiklin  ? What  is 
said  of  fosiah' s favorite  brother?  What  did  Benjamin' s father  in- 
tend him  to  be?  To  what  occufatiooi  was  he  assigned?  What  were 
the  books  he  read?  Ioi  what  circumstances  did  he  become  a printer? 

How  did  he  correct  the  faults  o f coonfos itiooi  ? What  unorthodox 
books  did  he  read?  How  did  Franklin  coooie  into  oiotice  as  a wo'iter? 
Why  did  he  take  ship  for  New  York , and  when? 

In  what  condition  did  he  arrive  in  Philadelphia?  What  event 
specially  ooiarked  his  eoito'aoice  ? 

How  did  he  coooie  to  the  oiotice  of  the  Governor?  What  was  the 
reason  of  his  return  to  Boston , and  its  result?  How  did  Franklin 
come  to  go  to  England?  With  what  result?  What  were  the  chief 
features  of  his  life  in  London  ? 

In  what  spirit  did  he  return  to  America?  What  was  the  faooious 
epitaph  Franklin  composed?  What  were  the  chief  features  of  his  re- 
lations to  his  partners  in  printing?  What  was  Franklin' s relation 
to  business  advertising?  How  did  Franklin  increase  the  circulation 
of  his  paper?  What  was  the  beginning  of  American  debating  socie- 
ties? One  cf  the  chief  questions  Franklin  favored? 

When  and  to  whom  was  Franklin  married?  When  was  the 
turning  Point  in  Franklin  s career?  What  were  the  chief  features  in 
his  new  life? 

For  what  was  Franklin  remarkable?  What  is  said  of  his  estab- 
lishment of  a public  library  ? What  is  said  of  Franklin  s wife?  Of 
their  mode  of  living?  Of  his  tendency  to  free  thinking?  Of  his  use  of 
a Liturgy  ? Of  his  struggle  after  moral  perfection  ? 

What  is  said  of Poor  Richard' s Almanac"  ? Of  Franklin  s study 
of  languages  ? Of  chess  ? Of  m usic  ? 

How  did  his  political  promotion  begin?  What  is  said  of  White- 
field?  Of  the  Franklin  Stove?  Of  the  American  Philosophical  Soci- 
ety? Of  Franklin  s love  of  nature?  Of  plain  truth?  Of  Franklin  as 
a soldier?  Of  the  Quakers  and  defensive  warfare?  Of  the  different 
positions  Franklin  filled?  Of  his  various  schemes?  Of  plaster  as  a 
fertilizer?  Of  his  work  as  postmaster?  Of  the  degrees  conferred  up- 
on him?  Of  his  appointment  as  Commissioner?  Of  Franklin  s 
"Short  Hints"  ? Of  his  relations  with  Governor  Shirley?  Of  his 
letters  on  "no  taxation  without  7'epresentation?" 

What  is  said  of  Braddock' s campaign  ? Of  Franklin  s discover- 
ies in  electricity  ? Of  his  relations  to  the  proprietaries  of  Pen n sylvan- 


ii8  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

ia?  To  Loudon  ? Of  his  visit  to  England  and  the  persons  he  met 
there ? Of  the  fall  of  Quebec?  Of  Franklin  s return  home?  Of 
Franklin  s son  William?  Of  Franklin' s relation  to  John  Penn?  Of 
his  pamphlet  on  “ Cool  Thoughts,"  etc.?  Of  the  wider  fields  of 
Franklm  s operations?  Of  the  Stamp  Act?  Of  Franklin  s mistake 
in  favoring  it? 

What  is  said  of  Franklin  as  a witness  before  Parliament?  Of 
the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act?  Of  the  stories  afloat  as  to  America?  Of 
the  indiffere7ice  to  American  affairs  in  England?  Of  interest  in 
France?  Of  his  relatioji  to  Whitefield?  To  Samuel  Adams?  Of 
Franklin' s enemies?  Of  the  admission  by  England  of  her  error?  Of 
the  effect  upon  the  colonies?  Of  Fratiklin  s efforts  to  promote  good 
will?  Of  various  English  statesmen?  Of  Franklin' s relations  to 
them?  Of  Franklin' s children  and  grandchildren?  Of  Mrs.  Frank- 
lin ? Of  Franklin' s varied  discoveries,  etc.  ? 

What  is  said  of  Franklin' s English  acquaintances?  Of  the  Roy- 
al Society?  Of '‘'The  Hutchinson  Letters?"  Of  the  attempt  to  bribe 
Franklin?  Of  Arthur  Lee?  Of Franklin  s return  home?  Of  his  re- 
lations to  Strahan?  To  Dr.  Priestley?  Of  his  services  as  delegate? 
Of  his  love  of  jokes?  Of  his  plan  of  union?  Of  his  various  positions 
and  constructions? 

What  is  said  of  the  operations  of  Dearie  and  Beaumarchais  in 
France?  Of  Franklin  s risk  in  trying  to  reach  France?  Of  the  rela- 
tions of  Deane  and  Lee  to  each  other?  Of  the  cause  of  Deane  s recall? 
Of  Franklin' s estimate  of  him?  Of  privateering  and  Franklin' s re- 
lation to  it?  Of  Franklin  and  Vergennes?  Of  the  capture  of  prison- 
ers? Of  Franklin  and  Thomas  Morris?  Of  Franklin  and  Arthur 
Lee? 

What  is  said  of  the  year  ijjj  ? Of  the  meeting  of  the  commission- 
ers ? Of  the  journey  of  A ustin  to  France  ? Of  the  meeting  at  Ver- 
sailles? Of  Franklin  and  Gerard?  Of  the  treaty  of  alliance  between 
France  and  the  United  States?  Of  the  bill  of  Lord  North  ? Of  the 
action  by  Congress?  Of  the  mission  of  Austin  to  England?  Of  the 
the  treaty  of  commerce?  Of  Voltaire  and  Franklin?  What  was  the 
general  estimate  of  Lee?  What  is  said  of  John  Adams?  Of  the  at- 
tempt to  ruin  Franklin?  Of  John  Paul  Jones?  Of  Franklin  s finan- 
cial duties  and  difficulties?  Of  Arthur  Lee  and  Izard?  Of  Congress 
and  William  Temple  Franklin?  Of  Congress  and  Franklin?  Of 
A dams  and  Vergennes?  Of  the  efforts  of  England  to  reach  an  under- 
standing  with  the  United  States? 

Of  his  financial  circumstances?  Of  Franklin  as  a joker?  Of 
Of John  Fitch?  Of  the  letter  to  his  friend?  Of  his  letter  to  Thomas 
Paine?  Of  his  interest  in  education?  Of  Shay' s rebellion?  Of  the 
Constitutional  C 07iv  ention?  Of  Fra7ikli7i ' s attitude  ? Of  his  re77iark 
about  the  su7i  ? Of  his  wish  for  prayers  for  the  daily  sessions?  Of  his 
actio7i  after  adjournment?  Of  his  further  electio7i  and  consequent  re- 
marks? Of  the  French  Revo lutio7i?  Of  Franklm  s relatic7i  to  sla- 
very? What  is  said  of  Spain?  Of  Jay  when  he  reached  Paris?  Of 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  i iq 

Jay  and  Vergennes?  Of  Jay  s difference  with  Franklin?  Of  Jay  and 
Adams?  Of  Shelburne?  Of  Franklin  and  Adams?  Of  Franklin 
in  1782  and  1783?  Of  Jefferson  as  Franklin  s successor?  Of  Frank- 
lin as  he  returned  home?  Of  his  reception  in  Philadelphia?  Of  his 
further  election  to  office?  Of  his  death  ? Of  his  sentiment  in  France  ? 
Of  Franklin  s attractiveness?  Of  his  intellectual  and  moral  powers? 
Of  the  change  in  his  attitude  toward  moral  and  religious  truth? 


SUBJECTS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY. 

1.  Franklin  as  a Boy. 

2.  Franklin  as  a Printer. 

3.  Franklin  as  Postmaster-General . 

4.  Franklin  as  a Moralist  and  Wit. 

3.  Franklin  as  a Scientist. 

6.  Franklin  s Relations  with  the  English  Parliament. 

7.  Franklin  as  a Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  France. 

8.  Franklin  s Relations  to  Education. 
q.  Franklin  as  a Soldier. 

jo.  Franklin  and  the  Hutchinson  Letters. 

11.  Franklin  as  a Philanthropist. 

12.  Franklin  as  a Statesman. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  EVENTS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  FRANKLIN. 

1706  Franklin  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass  , Jan.  17. 

1715  Sent  to  Boston  Grammar  School. 

1718  Apprenticed  to  his  brother  James  as  a printer. 

1721  Began  writing  articles  for  the  “New  England  Courant.” 

1723  Set  sail  for  New  York.  Reached  Philadelphia.  Returned  to 

Boston  to  solicit  aid  for  printing. 

1724  Went  to  England  at  Sir  William  Keith’s  request. 

1726  Returned  to  Philadelphia. 

1729  Established  in  printing  business  at  Philadelphia. 

1730  Married  Miss  Read,  Sept.  1.  Established  Debating  Society, 

which  afterwards  became  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 

1731  Founded  the  Philadelphia  Library. 

1732  Began  publishing  “Poor  Richard’s  Almanac.” 

1736  Elected  Clerk  of  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania. 

1738  Organized  the  first  fire  company  in  the  country. 

1742  Invented  the  Franklin  or  “Open  Stove.” 

1743  Projected  the  University,  which  afterwards  became  the  Uni- 

versity of  Pennsylvania. 

1744  Assisted  in  organizing  a Volunteer  Association  for  the  defense 

of  the  Province, 

1747  Elected  to  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which  he  contin- 
ued a member  for  ten  years. 


120 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


1753  Appointed  Deputy  Postmaster-General  for  the  Continent. 

1754  Began  to  serve  in  the  Continental  Congress.  Brought  forward 

plan  for  a Federal  Union. 

1755  Assisted  General  Braddock  in  obtaining  money  and  supplies. 
1757  Sent  by  the  Assembly  to  England. 

1762  Received  thex  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Oxford  and  Edinburgh 
Universities.  ' Received  the  formal  thanks  of  the  Assembly. 
1764  Sent  again  to  England. 

1774  The  celebrated  affair  of  the  “Hutchinson  Letters.” 

1775  Elected  unanimously  by  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  to  the 

Second  Continental  Congress,  May  6. 

1776  Sent  to  join  with  Arthur  Lee  and  Silas  Deane,  in  securing  the 

co-operation  of  France. 

1778  Signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  mainly  by  Franklin’s  efforts. 

1783  Signing  of  the  Treaty,  by  which  a large  portion  of  the  conti- 
nent was  secured  to  the  United  States,  in  which  the  tact  of 
Franklin  was  signally  displayed.  Negotiation  of  a treaty 
with  Prussia. 

1 785-87  Returned  to  America.  Elected  President  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  twice  re-elected. 

1787  Elected  delegate  to  the  Federal  Convention. 

1789  Signed  Memorial  to  Congress  as  President  of  an  Anti-Slavery 

Society,  to  abolish  slavery. 

1790  Died  in  Philadelphia,  April  17. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For  those  who  wish  to  read  extensively  the  following  works  are 
especially  commended: 

“Life  and  Times  of  Benjamin  Franklin.”  James  Parton.  2 Vols.  New 
York,  1864. 

“Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin.”  Jared  Sparks.  Tuppan  & Dennett. 
Boston,  1844. 

“Benjamin  Franklin.”  George  Canning  Hill.  R.  Worthington,  New 
York,  1864. 

“Appleton’s  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography.”  D.  Appleton  & Co., 
New  York. 

“Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin.”  Lindsay  & Blakeston.  Philadelphia, 
1846. 

“Autobiography  of  Benjamin  Franklin.”  John  Bigelow.  Philadelphia, 
1868. 

“Life  of  Franklin.”  M.  L.  Weems.  J.  P.  Lippincott  & Co.  Philadel- 
phia, 1883. 

“Benjamin  Franklin.”  J.  Abbott.  Harper’s  Magazine.  ¥01.4:145,289. 
“Benjamin  Frankiin  as  a Man  of  Letters.”  Professor  John  Bach  Mc- 
Master.  Houghton,  Mifflin  & Co.  Boston,  1887. 


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